Wet Week Here In Vermont, But A Full Flood In Italy

Tornado damage on Fishers Island, New York.
Photo by Matt Edwards

More rain fell on Vermont Monday, as you know. October is turning out to be a rather wet month.

As October closes and November begins, a lot more rain is on the way.

There's been a lot of gloomy, wet weather lately around here, which is bad for a lot of us. But the U.S. Drought Monitor says we still haven't gotten rid of the drought in northern Vermont, so this incessant rain is a good thing, I guess.

Where I live in St. Albans, Vermont, the Drought Monitor says I'm still in drought, but as I dig in the garden, the soil moisture is much better than it was a month ago. Although if I dig down far enough and I occasionally find some dry earth. But we're getting there.

This week will help. Most of us are going to get at least an inch of rain, probably more. Today will be mostly dry but chilly.  There might be a few light showers of rain or snow in the mountains, but that's it.

Shower chances will increase Wednesday as a cold front stalls nearby. Little disturbances and packets of moisture will travel northward along the front, keeping the showers going through Thursday. A final, stronger storm will ride northward along the this front Thursday night and Friday, and that's when most of the rain will fall.

Even though some of us will get up to two inches of rain, rivers and streams are still low enough so that flooding is not anticipated.

That's not to say that areas outside of Vermont won't have rough weather in the coming days. It actually started Monday. New England, which I now half-jokingly call the new "Tornado Alley" had another twister yesterday.

A waterspout came ashore in Woods Hole, Massachusetts as a tornado, causing minor damage. Another relatively weak tornado touched down in North Stonington, Connecticut. Yet another somewhat stronger tornado hit Fishers Island, New York, just off the coast of southeastern Connecticut, damaging buildings and knocking down a bunch of trees.

So far in 2018, New England has had 17 tornadoes. Quite a few for this region, doncha think?

Flooding in Venice, Italy Monday. Photo by Michael
Silvestri/Reuters

This stormy pattern looks destined to unleash some severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in Texas tomorrow.  Over the next couple of days, flooding is possible in some spots in a broad stripe from Texas to Pennsylvania.

It looks like an active pattern will continue across much of the nation through mid-November, so expect lots more storminess for awhile.

ITALY FLOOD

High winds and flooding have killed nine people in Italy in the past couple of days, the Associated Press reports. Venice, Italy was about 70 percent flooded by an exceptionally high tide caused by the storm. This was the worst inundation in Venice in a decade.

A marathon was held in Venice and runners had to splash through ankle deep water through parts of the course.