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| Flash flooding in Jericho, Vermont in 2013. Vermont has escaped the heavy rains that have repeatedly swamped the East Coast from Southern New England to the Carolinas. Scenes like this one have been common in that region all summer and into the fall. |
Flooding has been a constant threat all summer. There have been repeated, disastrous floods since May, culiminating with the Hurricane Florence disaster in the Carolinas.
Some areas in the East are having record wet years so far. A few places have had 20 or more inches of rain more than normal for this point in the year.
This morning, a middling storm is passing up the East Coast, dropping one to two inches of rain along most of its path.
Such amounts of rain are usually no big deal, But the ground is so saturated that flood alerts this morning extend from Virginia to southern New England.
Connecticut especially doesn't need the rain they're getting this morning. While we up north got relatively moderate amounts of rain Tuesday and Wednesday, they got dumped on big time. Up to eight inches of rain fell, causing flash floods that damaged homes and businesses, and blocked numerous roads.
Here in northern Vermont, this morning's rain was lighter than in points south, but still welcome indeed. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, issued Thursday, still has a good chunk of northwestern Vermont in a moderate drought, but that doesn't really take into account the rain we had Wednesday.
This September in northern Vermont has actually been a bit wetter than normal. Nothing extreme, but we'll take it.
I think as we keep getting rains (I hope!) the drought will slowly fade. The good news over the next week is that northern New England is expected to get another inch or so of rain, but the Middle Atlantic States and southern New England will get very little precipitation.
Maybe they can start to dry out a little.
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