More Storminess In Vermont; It's Summer

A chaotic looking evening sky over Colchester, Vermont on
Saturday as thunderstorms blossomed in the region. 

Many of us in Vermont were treated once again Saturday to some fun, stormy skies, thunder and lightning.

There were reports of some damage as a few of the storms became severe. Interestingly at my place in St. Albans, Vermont, I was under a severe thunderstorm warning for the third time in a week, which is impressive. The storms around here, including those last evening, did not turn out to be damaging at all.

Still, strong thunderstorm winds knocked down trees Saturday in a variety of places around the region, including several spots in the Northeast Kingdom around Bradford and Orange and in Waterbury, where a number of trees blew over.

An initial round of severe storms hit southern New England the mid-Atlantic states Saturday afternoon, but missed Vermont.  Several places down there had high winds and hail up to the size of golf balls, so we should be glad we avoided that.

That strong upper level low in Quebec we've been talking about was slowly sinking southward Saturday evening. Even though there's not a major storm at the Earth's surface. this upper level pool of cold air is dynamic and creating plenty of instability.

Warm, humid weather usually feeds thunderstorms, but it wasn't super warm or super humid last evening. But the energy of this cool pool from Quebec was able to make lots of thunderstorms blossom Saturday evening. Some of them were strong to severe. But even if not, they were widespread.

And pretty, as you can see by the photos in this post.

Orange post-sunset light pokes through dark storm clouds
Saturday evening in St. Albans, Vermont.

You wouldn't expect anything in the way of thunderstorms today, again, at least on paper. It's overcast and cool this morning. Nothing that would inspire thunderstorms. A dull rain, maybe, but nothing dramatic.

But like I said, this upper level storm is pretty feisty and will be able to kick off at least some thunderstorms. I think very few, if any will make it to severe levels.

Maybe in southern New England, there will probably be a few storms with damaging winds and large hail, mostly because it's a little warmer and a little sunnier there to add energy.

Even so, in the rest of Vermont, there will be frequent showers around. Many of us will hear thunder and see lightning today. A few thunderstorms will be able to generate gusty winds. Again nothing destructive, but the strongest storms could produce gusts as high as 30 to 35 mph.

There is even a good chance some of us will get hail. Nothing big, just pea sized. It's so cold aloft that  if you get to just 8,500 feet in elevation, it'll get below freezing. Since there's not much space between subfreezing air and down where we are, there's little time or any hail stones that do form to melt. So some will make it down here.

Despite relatively dry-ish air over us, some of the showers and storms today could produce locally heavy downpours. The heaviest rains if they get going won't last long, so there's no real threat of flooding.

A band of heavy showers, with a few lightning strikes was over the Montreal area and heading south toward the Vermont border as of 8:45 a.m. this Sunday morning. Another zone of pretty good showers was over New York and appeared to be heading toward the southern half of Vermont.

The Quebec band of showers and thunderstorms appeared to be strengthening somewhat or at least holding its own as it moves south this morning, so these forecasts of potentially gusty and hail-ish storms seems pretty realistic.

This cold upper level low will get out of our hair quickly and it will be back go summer warmth by tomorrow.

As the week goes on, it'll keep getting warmer and especially more humid, so by the second half of the week, we'll be back to having chances of mostly afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

Here's a brief video I took of a stormy sunset and lightning strike as seen from St. Albans Saturday evening (Click on the square like thingy on the bottom right of the video to make it bigger and easier to see:

Europe Scorches To All Time Record Highs; Toasty Here, Too, With An Interruption

People try to cool off in the Trocodero Fountain in Paris Friday.
Photo by Zakaria Abdelkafi/Getty Images

Here in Vermont, it got up to 90 degrees in Burlington, the first 90 degree reading of the summer.

Fun fact: Last summer, the first 90 of the year didn't hit until June 30, and we ended up with 17 days that were 90 or over. Normal for an entire summer is about five such days.

It's cooling off today in Vermont, temporarily at least. Plus, if you didn't like Friday's toasty temperatures, it was nothing compared to much of Europe

As you might have heard on the news, France suffered through its hottest day on record. From a climatology standpoint, the record highs were even more impressive than at first glance.

The temperature reached 114.6 degrees at Gallargues-le-Montueux, France Friday, breaking the all-time hot record for France of 111.4 set on August 12, 2003.

It's obviously very rare for a nation to break its hottest temperature. It's downright bizarre to break the previous record by three degrees. These new all time records are almost always broken by a fraction of a degree, or perhaps one degree at most.

On top of this, the hot record was set in June, before the normal hottest part of summer. If there's going to be an all-time record high, you'd expect it later in July or in August.

As the Category 6 blog points out, there's yet another amazing fact regarding the French hot record.  A full dozen weather stations beat or tied France's previous all time record high temperature.

The small principality of Andorra, which is between France and Spain, also established a new all time record high of 102.9 degrees.

If all this is unbelievable here's another factoid: France has a shot today of breaking its all time record high temperature that I just said was established yesterday.

It was so hot in Spain that a pile of manure got so hot it self-ignited, sparking a 10,000 acre wildfire. 

The heat in Europe will roll on through this weekend. It'll shift eastward a bit, so that Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic might establish all time record highs, too. The heat is finally expected to diminish early next week.

The Europe heat wave is part of a trend that's probably connected at least in part to climate change. National Geographic notes that Europe's five hottest summers in the past 500 years have all occurred within the last 15 years.

Heat waves in Europe are exceptionally deadly because the use of air conditioning isn't nearly as widespread as it is in the United States. Fewer than five percent of German and French homes have air conditioning.

At least 70,000 Europeans died in a long, punishing heat wave in 2003. About 56,000 Russians met a similar fate in an epic 2010 heat wave there.

U.S. HOT, BUT NOT AS BAD

Summer does seem to be getting its act together in the United States. A broad area in the northern and  central Plains,  which had experienced a cold and wet winter and spring, is now under a heat advisory. 

Heat indexes in this neck of the woods are over 100 degrees today and tomorrow.

Back home in Vermont, it will actually be a fair amount cooler than normal Sunday with lots of clouds and an unseasonable cold, upper level low overhead. But that will quickly clear out by Monday.

The entirety of next week in Vermont won't exactly have record heat like Europe, but it will be on the warm side, with increasing humidity toward the end ofthe week.

More Vermont Storms In The Offing, And Some Of Us Got Woken Up Last Night

Thunderstorm clouds in South Burlington Wednesday. Will we
see additional photogenic skies this weekend? It all depends. 

We managed to get through Thursday without any storms, but that little weather front from Quebec and Ontario that wasn't supposed to amount to all that much packed a punch.

I'm sure many people got woken up by the storms that rolled through around or just after midnight last night. I certainly did. Besides the lightning and thunder, the storms produced heavy downpours and even some pockets of damage.

Trees blew down in Champlain, New York. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington, Vermont received pea-sized hailstones.  We were under a severe thunderstorm warning here in St. Albans, Vermont, where I am. No damage on my property, though.

Skies have basically cleared and we'll probably get through today without a storm.  In the Champlain and Connecticut River valleys, we have a shot of seeing our first 90 degree day of the summer. Iffy, but could happen.

Still, those potentially picturesque and noisy storms I've been talking about seem destined to make a return. As always, they'll be hit and miss, with some people getting a good storm over the next couple of days and other people getting next to nothing.

A complex of showers and thunderstorms from the upper Midwest will approach us tonight and go through after midnight and into Saturday morning. But this area of disturbed weather will be weakening as it comes through. We'll get some showers, and maybe a rumble of thunder out of it. It won't be as dramatic as last night.

What that disturbance does and how quickly it gets out of our hair Saturday morning will determine if we get a lot of new fun thunderstorms Saturday afternoon. A cold front will be coming through in the afternoon. If we get a decent amount of sun before it arrives, some nice thunderstorms could blossom.

If it stays cloudier, the chances of stronger storms will go down.

Further south, there's a decent chance of at least a few strong to severe thunderstorms in the southern half of New England.  Southern Vermont could get on that action, too, so we'll need to keep an eye on that.  More details should be available Saturday morning on where the best chances of rough weather might be.

Sunday could be interesting, too, and possibly picturesque again.  A pocket of very cold air aloft will move overhead on Sunday.  Meanwhile, this time of year the sun is as strong as it can get.

The contrast between the sun's warmth and the cold air above us will form billowing clouds and create lots of showers.  It remains to be seen whether this will manifiest itself in the form of pretty, tall clouds that create showers and thunderstorms, with sun and shadows creating a striking sky. Or  will it just give us a dull, cloudy day?

Will Sunday be a sky watching and photo day, or a quiet day to get work done indoors? It remains to be seen. In any event, there will be showers and maybe a couple thunderstorms around. Since the freezing level in the atmosphere is so low, there might be some small hail with a few storms. And it will be chilly on Sunday for this time of year.

Never fear, though. That's just a brief interruption to summer weather. It will turn warm again Monday as the cold pocket departs, and we'll have relatively toasty weather all of next week. And, depending on the timing of minor disturbances passing by, we might get a few more thunderstormson some days next week

for this time of year will move over

Classic Summer Weather And Classic Summer Storms, Finally

Dark and beautifully patterned clouds Wednesday in a
thunderstorm that was approaching South Burlington, Vermont.

The last few days have finally brought us classic Vermont summer weather: To my mind, it's perfect.

This weather features quite a bit of sun, with puffy clouds thrown in. Temperatures are now often reaching the 80s, with some noticeable but not extreme humidity.

And there's finally summer storms thrown into the mix. Towering cumulus and thunderstorms are easily my favorite type of cloud.

The form an endless array of distinct shapes. They're often dramatic. You need your camera with you at all times in a Vermont summer, in case the sky gives you a treat.

One bonus is that although Vermont can does get severe and damaging thunderstorms every summer, we're not as prone to super scary storms as the Midwest and South. Often, we get the beauty and the drama without the destruction.

Plus, the tallest thunderstorm towers can often be seen when they're as many as 100 miles away, if there's no mountains to block your view. Which I think is pretty cool.

Early this Thursday afternoon, for instance, I could see the tops of some distant thunderstorms from my perch in St. Albans. The storms were well into Quebec. How far up north? Radar showed they were about 60 miles north of Montreal when I spotted them. Montreal is 65 miles north of me. So these storms, barely visible through the slightest haze, were roaring 125 miles away from me.

More on those storms in a minute.

Yesterday brought the first significant, dramatic thunderstorms of the season to my neck of the woods in northwestern Vermont, and I couldn't have been more pleased.

Gorgeous but threatening skies as a thunderstorm approached
South Burlington Wednesday. 

The storms prompted severe thunderstorm warnings in a wide area along the shores of the northern half of Lake Champlain of New York, most of the Champlain Valley of Vermont and on into central Vermont.

Actual reports of severe weather were scant, which is great. Despite the excitement of having a severe thunderstorm warning, that turned out exactly as meteorologists predicted.

Ingredients were there for isolated, but not widespread severe weather. It was a little warmer than forecast yesterday. Burlington reached 86 degrees Wednesday. That was the hottest temperature so far this year, though it was nothing unusual for late June.

Humidity was moderate. The sun, the heat and the modest humidity helped destabilize the atmosphere, allowing for thunderstorms. A weak boundary approached from the St. Lawrence Valley of New York.

It doesn't take much to form thunderstorms this time of year, and there you go. On the other hand, Wednesday's air wasn't super unstable and there were dry layers up there, so that prevented a lot of severe weather.

Storm clouds over South Burlington Wednesday look like a painting.
Like all photos in this post, I did no editing or augmentation.

However, there was a long north to south band of thunderstorms with this. Most cells in this band were below severe levels, but a few spots in this band looked like they had the potential to reach severe limits.

You couldn't tell which isolated spot in the path of this band would get a brief period of severe weather, so the National Weather Service had to issue a blanket severe thunderstorm warning for most people in the path of the storms.

All this is to remind you that every time you get a severe thunderstorm warning this summer, take it seriously and get inside. You never know where under that warning the winds and/or hail will get particularly dangerous

In the end, there were reports of some damage in Essex, New York. A tree toppled in downtown Burlington. I saw very minor flash flooding and a few twigs down in Charlotte, Shelburne and South Burlington, so nothing major there.

The clouds with this band of storms though! They made me very happy. Especially since there wasn't a lot of damage to report.

MORE STORMS AND SUMMER

This afternoon is once again very warm and vaguely humid. That would maybe mean the chance of additional photogenic storms, but you need a trigger, like that weak boundary yesterday.

Updrafts near the mountains could trigger a few isolated showers and storms in the Green Mountains and Adirondacks late this afternoon, but no biggie.

There is a weak weather front in Quebec which is triggering those thunderstorms up there that I mentioned. As of this writing, at 2 p.m. Thursday, there's even a severe thunderstorm warning in northwestern Maine, due to the same weather front. That boundary might come close enough to the Vermont and New York border to set up the chance of isolated storms this evening.

But the sun will be going down by the time that boundary tries to cross the International Border, so potential energy for storms will also be going away. People way up north in Vermont might hear a rumble of thunder and see pretty clouds again this evening, so that's good.

Friday it's more of the same. Just a chance of late day storms.

This post is getting a little long, so I'll postpone a discussion about Saturday and Sunday until tomorrow morning. Let's just say there's a chance both weekend days could grant us some photogenic skies again, if things work out right. It will be unsettled, and possibly stormy so we'll see!

Vermont Storms: I Took A "Shelfie" Also, More Details On Storms Later Today

Me enjoying a shelf cloud as a strong thunderstorm approached
South Burlington, Vermont Wednesday. 

I only have a little time this morning, so I'll just share this quick photo. I finally got a chance to take a "Shelfie" on Wednesday.

A severe thunderstorm warning was effect when this storm was approaching South Burlington on Wednesday.

The storm had a shelf cloud, which is a sort of wedge shaped cloud that sets up along the gust front along the leading edge of strong to severe thunderstorm.

This thunderstorm turned out to be not all that severe, but it did give this weather geek an opportunity. We all know how much people like to take selfies for social media. Weather enthusiasts like to take "shelfies" which is a photo of themselves with a shelf cloud.

So I did.

I gotta run, as I'm busy this morning. But later today, I'll share more information and images of the storminess and detail the possibilities of more "interesting" weather in the coming days. Don't worry: "Interesting" doesn't mean "dire.'

Just Can't Get Enough Of Those Storm Videos

Maybe this is becoming too much of a habit, but I've got more videos to share.

The first is the most dramatic. It shows people frantically trying to get off a boat in a severe storm. Suddenly the entire marina next to them goes flying as an apparent tornado hits. It looks like the debris somehow missed the people in this surveillance video:



The first part of this video is pretty impressive. It shows a supercell thunderstorm moving into Charleston, West Virginia on Monday. That wall of rain and wind is impressive. This storm did produce at least one tornado.



I'm sure the store manager in this video is having a bad day. A storm and flood caused roof damage at a Tesco Supermarket in Scotland a few days ago. Here's the scene inside the store:



Finally, lots more drama. Dash cam video from a guy in a car caught in a tornado that hit the Dayton, Ohio area a couple weeks ago. Surprised he wasn't hurt, with the trees flying and the roof of the nearby house appearing to disintegrate:

Climate Change Future? Stuck, Dangerous Summer Weather Patterns And Southeast Hurricanes

A schematic of how Rossyby waves look as viewed from
above the North Pole. 

A prolonged, possibly record strong heat wave is starting in Europe about now, which is helping lead to more discussion about whether "stuck"summer weather patterns are increasing.

These "stuck" patterns can lead to more intense heat waves than previously felt, and more serious warm season flooding than previously experienced. And, of course, climate change might be behind this phenomenon.

Obviously, there's no way scientists can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the currently building European heat wave is "caused" by climate change. But it's consistent with what's been happening with growing frequency.

Possible examples include a deadly, summer long heat wave in Europe in 2003, and another long, fatal Russian heat wave in 2010. That same persistent weather pattern in 2010 fueled record flooding in Pakistan.

Other examples might include a 2011 Texas drought, floods across Europe in 2013, California wildfires in 2015 and 2018, and lengthy hot spells in Japan, Scandinavia, Quebec and northern New England last summer.

Climate scientists are looking at something called atmospheric  Rossby waves.  They're nothing new and totally normal. The Rossby waves help transfer heat from the tropics and cold air from the Arctic so that Earth's atmosphere can stay pretty balanced.

Rossby waves also help set in place the jet stream and lead to fairly long and persistent weather patterns.

These waves have always created "stuck" weather patterns, but with climate change, are Rossby waves somehow getting better at stalling weather patterns for longer periods of time? And making the "stuck" weather more intense?

There's usually about five to seven Rossby waves at any given time in the northern hemisphere, and they usually slowly move eastward. That's a big reason why you might get storminess for a few days, then dry and warm weather for a few days, then back to storminess.

However, it's possible that climate change might occasionally make the slow eastward motion of the Rossby waves to stop more often, setting up prolonged periods of heat under ridges in the waves, and long spells of heavy precipitation and flooding near the dips.

Large temperature constrasts between land and ocean might encourage Rossby waves to stall, and some climate models suggest these contrasts will get more extreme and more frequent, which would stall Rossby waves.

I know this is all weedy and technical, but it's one reason why climate scientists say the world isn't just warming up, but the weather is tending to get more extreme

SOUTHEAST HURRICANES

Often a big strong hurricane approaching the southeastern United States coast will weaken somewhat before getting to that region.

That's because hurricanes moving north from the tropics are likely to encounter wind shear. Wind shear is a change in wind direction and/or speed as you go up in elevation. Wind shear tends to tear hurricanes apart.

For people who live in the Southeast, that's a good thing. You'd want weaker hurricanes.

However, according to the Category 6 blog,  recent studies suggest that wind shear over the Southeastern United States during hurricane season will weaken over time, which would open the door for stronger hurricanes to hit the Southeast.

That even has implications for us up north. If the hurricane continues north, it might encounter wind shear later than it would have in a cooler climate, making the storm likely to be stronger as it got to New England.

On the bright side, the same study suggests climate change might increase wind shear in the deeper tropics, maybe making it less likely that strong hurricanes could develop in the first place.

Not all weird weather is attributable to climate change. There have always been oddball storms and record temperatures. However, climate change might be influencing these events. Like all picky details regarding climate change, this whole thing needs more study and review.

Colorado Greets Summer's Arrival With Winter Snow; Also More Storm Videos

Snow in Colorado over the weekend. Photo via Twitter @CoDude5280

The Summer Solstice brought a rare winter storm to Colorado and other sections of the Rocky Mountains.

Some of the higher totals included 4.9 inches in Cameron Pass and 4.2 inches in Berthoud Pass.  Mountain summits really got clobbered, with a report of two feet of new snow at Steamboat Springs.

The new snow prompted the Arapahoe Basin ski area to extend its season to the final days of June.

June snow happens from time to time in the Rocky Mountains, but this was awfully late in the season and awfully deep for the Summer Solstice

Here's the mid-winter like scene in Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado over the weekend:



Storms continued to batter other parts of the nation Sunday. A tornado touched down around South Bend, Indiana. There were also many reports of wind damage across the South and Midwest.

Here's a close range video of a tornado hitting South Bend, Indiana. The twister badly damaged a day care center behind the CVS Pharmacy in the video:



Here's traffic cam footage in Georgia the other day showing extreme thunderstorm winds thrashing and collapsing traffic signals. Glad I wasn't in one of the cars there:

New Twist In Nation's 2019 Severe Weather Hell: A Derecho

Damage reports extending from Colorado to South Carolina Friday
along the path of a derecho.

As many parts of the nation continues to reel from severe storms and flooding that seem to go on and on, we had one more type of storm chaos to deal with this past week. A derecho.

Derechos are long-lasting, long-tracked thunderstorm complexes that are capable of lots and lots of damage. That's especially true because they cover quite a lot of real estate.

Here's the officials definition of a derecho from NOAA:

"By definition, if the swath of wind damage extend for more than 250 miles, includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph for most of its length and also includes several well separated 75 mph or greater gusts, then the event may be classified as a derecho."

It appears Friday's storm complex, which originated over Colorado late Thursday night and finally moved off the coast of far distanct South Carolina early Saturday, will be classified as a derecho.  This path was unusually long, even for a derecho. It went on for more than 1,000 miles before finally falling apart off the South Carolina coast.

Friday's derecho killed at least 3 people along its path, the Weather Channel reported. There were a good 550 reports of damage across the nation Friday, mostly along the path of the derecho.

Derechos can produce tornadoes, but most of the damage from them is from straight line winds. This was true of Friday's storm complex. Six tornadoes were reported, but most of the severe weather reports were of straight line winds.

Damage reports were spottier in Colorado and Kansas in the initial phase of the derecho. I think that's mostly because it went through sparsely populated areas so that not as many people were there to report on it

The derecho picked up steam later Friday as it past southeastward through Missouri, southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina.

Derechos aren't very common, to be honest. There's usually only a couple or a few in the United States every year, if that.

That's good, because derechos can be very expensive, not to mention deadly. Remember, they cover a lot of ground, so there's usually a huge number of people and property in the way of these things

There's no word on the dollar amount of damage of Friday's derecho, but some past ones have been really notable. A June, 2012 derecho that started in Iowa and moved east and southeastward through the Mid-Atlantic states killed 22 people, caused $2.9 billion in damage and cut off electricity for 4 million people.

Derechos are rare in Vermont, but can happen. On average, Vermont can be expected to experience a derecho once every four years.

Perhaps the most notable derecho in modern times to affect our neck of the woods was in July, 1995, amid a record heat wave. (Derechos often get their a lot of their energy from extremely hot, humid air.)

There was actually a series of four derechos during one week across the northern United States in mid-July, 1995. The fourth one originated in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and traveled southeastward through Ontario, New York, and on into southern Vermont and New Hampshire, and the rest of southern New England.

When this derecho crossed the Adirondacks, it leveled large tracts of forest and killed five people. There was also lots of tree damage in Vermont, mostly south of Route 4.

It's hard to tell when another derecho will develop. Suffice it to say there's plenty of severe weather once again in the middle of the nation today. No word yet on whether any of this will evolve into another derecho.

We're Wet; But Parts Of The World Too Hot, Too Dry

Residents of Chennai, India queue up for emergency water supplies
as seen in this photo from Reuters. 

After all that rain we had this week, I certainly didn't have to water my garden in St. Albans last evening.

The water content of my garden is the the most trivial thing in the world compared to weather conditions in some parts of the world.  Here's one: A major Indian city is running out of water.

Chennai, India, has about 4.6 million people and a punishing drought, aggravated in the past two or three months by record heat, has shriveled up its reservoirs.

Which means India is faced with an impossible task: How do you supply that many people with water when there's practically none locally?

As CNN reports:

"With low groundwater levels and insufficient rainwater collection systems, the state government has resorted to trucking water directly into Chennai neighboryoods, where hundreds of thousands of residents wait in line for their meager allocations."

Just as climate scientists have predicted, the water shortages have causes public unrest, with fights breaking out for thin water supplies and people hijacking water trucks.

Climate change, which seems to be intensifying droughts and delaying seasonal monsoon rains in India, is only one ingredient to this mess.

CNN reports there's no good infrastructure to store water in Chennai and other areas of India when the rains do come.

Chennai did manage to get 1.14 inches of rain Thursday, but that is as much as they've had in the previous six months combined. For Chennai, that's really not much rain at all. And a lot of that precipitaiton ran off, since there's no good systems to either store the meager rainfall in reservoirs or tanks.

India more than other countries relies on groundwater, and that's been depleting fast. Wells in groundwater aren't expensive, but as we see, combined with drought, this causes water shortages.

Chennai is the third major city in recent years to flirt with entirely running out of water, and it is the worst of the three.

Sao Paulo, Brazil and its 20 million people nearly very ran out of water in 2014 when reservoir levels dipped to 3 percent of capacity. Cape Town, South Africa nearly ran out of water in 2018. 

EUROPE HEAT

It's not drought so much at the moment in Europe as it is heat. A strong blocked up weather pattern seems destined to steer what could be a record heat wave into much of Europe over the next several days. Heat records for the month of June are threatened, notes the Category 6 blog.

Temperatures in parts of Germany, Belgium, France, the Nethelands and other countries could reach 100 degrees.


nearly ran out of water

"Show Your Stripes" Climate Change Chart All The Summer Solstice Rage

Climate change strips for Vermont. Notice the
heavier reds toward the right, which represent
more recent years

There's a campaign on social media called "Show Your Stripes,"

It's all related to climate change, and is a way for activists, weather and climate geeks and others to highlight how things have changed since the 1800s. 

As the Boston Globe reports:

"The climate stripes project was developed by Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, England. In these images, the stripes show how temperatures have changed since the mid to late 1800s. Blue represents a colder than average year while red represents a warmer than average one and the deeper the color, the more extreme the (departure from average)."

You can obtain the stripes for anywhere in the world at this link.  The stripes in this post represent the state of Vermont. As you can see, there's a lot more red and orange to the right, representing warmth which is the more recent years.

I've checked out stripes for other locations and have seen quite a lot of variability in the degree the stripes change. Some areas have barely warmed, others have really heated up. Vermont seems to be heating up a little more strongly than many other locations.

 
.

It Felt Inevitable: Flash Flooding Again Caused Damage In Vermont

Mad River in Moretown, Vermont running high and fast after
Thursday's heavy rain. 

With so much storminess and flooding in the nation this year, it seemed inevitable that Vermont would be hit again.

Flash flooding hit parts of the state Thursday.  We had been dodging bullet after bullet since mid-April, when heavy rain and snow melt caused destructive floods in parts of Vermont.

That was only two months ago, I realize, but the way things have been going, a two-month reprieve from flooding seems like a gift.

Especially since both the flooding in April and what happened Thursday were certainly damaging, but not worst-case scenarios.

In fact, most of the state was just fine Thuesday.

As is always the case with this type of event, the flooding was hit and miss, mostly a miss. It rained hard pretty much everywhere in the state, but problems were scattered in a few corners of the state. For example, there was several hours of heavy rain around my house in St. Albans, Vermont, but I can't see any harm around my place whatsoever.

We always have to look on the bright side, don't we?

Still, there were plenty of damage reports across Vermont. Some examples:

--The flooding closed several roads, including parts of Routes 14, 15 and 16 near Hardwick,  Route 125 between Ripton and Middlebury, and several roads and streets around Rutland.

-- There were reports of some water rescues around Ripton, Middlebury and Bristol.

-- Orwell reported 3.25 inches of rain. Though the rain wasn't finished by late Thursday afternoon, several locations in Vermont reported more than two inches of rain. Burlington had 1.40 inches of rain, a record for the date.

-- Additionally, severe thunderstorms managed to get going across central Vermont Thursday afternoon.  Several trees fell on power lines around Hartford. Downed trees were also reported in Rutland, Clarendon and Mendon.

ELSEWHERE, OUTSIDE VERMONT

Via CNN, flooding in New Jersey Thursday. 

As is thankfully the case so often, Vermont's flash flood problems weren't as bad as some other areas.

There was a remarkably large area that had at least scattered reports of damaging floods, extending from Toronto, Canada to the north, Indiana and Ohio to the west, and New Jersey to the south and east.

The Philadelphia area and a good chunk of New Jersey is cleaning up from flash floods yesterday that trapped people in their cars and forced rescuers to go out in boats to take people from flooded homes.

Many places in southern New Jersey had a month's worth of rain in seven hours Wednesday night.

Flooding risks over the next couple of days will shift back into the Midwest.

OUTLOOK

There will be no new problems with Vermont flooding, for the next few days at least.  Steady rain in southern Vermont will move out later this morning. Lingering light showers will pester us here and there for the rest of the day.  A few insignificant showers might sprinkle down on the Northeast Kingdom Saturday afternoon, but that's about it.

There is, however, some potential danger signs for the middle of next week, but that is by no means guaranteed. Showers and thunderstorms are pretty likely on Tuesday, and might linger in hit and miss fashion for the remainder of next week.

It's too soon to tell if any of the storms will be strong, or carry enough rain to renew the flood threat. But the soil is pretty soggy now, so that could elevate the chances of new flooding a little bit. On the other hand, sunny weather Sunday and Monday will help to dry things out.

And, again, looking on the bright side, we won't have to water our gardens for the next couple of days, will we?

Flooding Worries Throughout Northeast. And Snow Again! (Don't Worry, Not in Vermont)

Areas in yellow might get enough rain to cause flooding today
and tonight. Any flooding in Vermont is likely to be
localized and not extreme. Still, don't drive through
flooded roads!

UPDATE 1 PM THURSDAY

The special weather statement from this morning that told us Vermont could end up dealing with a little flooding today has been upgraded to a flash flood watch.

The watch means that rapidly developing floods have the potential to occur this afternoon and evening.

Rainfall is even heavier than anticipated, with a large zone of heavy rain over central and northern Vermont as of 1 p.m.

We have several hours at least of occasionally heavy rain to get to. Some places in the North Country have already gotten nearly an inch of rain, and another one to three inches is on the way.

Where the heaviest downpours set up, flash flooding could easily occur. In the general area of moderate to heavy rain coming through, there are pockets of torrential downpours that could lead to flash flooding just about anywhere, especially north of Route 4.

Local flash flood warnings, meaning flooding is already happening or imminent, have been issued in parts of New York, with these warnings popping up further and further east as the rain continues in that direction.

Not far from the Vermont border, a flash flood warning is up for areas around Lake George and Bolton Landing, New York.

Don't drive into flooded roadways and seek higher ground if you get a flash flood warning or see water rising quickly.

Not everybody will get a flood out of this and it's not another Hurricane Irene, but still, take it very seriously.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

The wet, wet year of 2019 continues on pace today, with a widespread zone stretching from Ohio and West Virginia on up through most of New England under the gun with a flood threat today and tonight.

Here in Vermont, where it's been a little drier lately than surrounding areas, the flooding, if it occurs, won't be as widespread or deep as elsewhere.

The larger rivers like the Winooski and Lamoille will probably rise sharply, but not go over their banks.

Since there will likely be locally heavy rain, there might be some flooding of small streams and creeks and in fields. Of biggest concern to most of us will be the risk of water ponding on roads and local urban sreet flooding.

And there's the risk that, as is so often the case with heavy rain in Vermont, sewage treatment plants will be overwhelmed, sending pollution into the rivers and ultimately Lake Champlain. Too many sewage treatment plants take waste from both buildings and storm sewers. When gushes of water go into street drains in heavy rains, that's where the trouble starts. Pretty icky, huh?

Generally speaking, most of us will get one to two inches of rain and most of that will come down between noon and midnight. The reason that there might be some local flooding is that in some places, there might be a torrential downpour thrown in that would dump a lot of rain in an hour or two.

It will dry out pretty quickly Friday, with just scattered light showers amid (temporarily) cooler conditions.

FLOODING WORSE ELSEWHERE

Many areas outside of Vermont, especially to our south and west, stand a greater chance of flooding than we do. And that flooding in many cases would be much worse than the minor stuff we expect here.

Vermont, especially the north, have been far enough away from a stalled weather front this week to avoid much rain. But that front has been stalled to our south, dumping heavy rain in the Mid-Atlantic States and westward into Ohio and Indiana.

Flooding is already taking place this morning in parts of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Many of these areas are at risk for more heavy rain today. Not good.

Already this morning, there has been flooding in and around Philadelphia and adjacent New Jersey, with people stranded on at least one highway because of flooding. I-295 in Bellmawr, New Jersey was blocked by flooding, backing up traffic for miles.

During the course of the week, the relentless rains will continue in places like Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas, where it has been basically pouring since March. The rain won't be as extreme as it was earlier this spring, but it will be enough to worsen or cause new flooding in some spots in that region.

SNOW AGAIN!?!?!

OK, the Summer Solstice is tomorrow, but somebody didn't get the memo in the northern Rockies.

Winter weather advisories, of all things, are up some high elevations above 5,000 feet in Idaho and Montana. Roads through mountain passes might get two to six inches of snow tonight, with six to 13 inches higher up in the mountains. Yikes!

Summer Creeps Into Vermont, Right On Schedule

Clouds build over the Adirondacks on a full-on summery day last
year, as viewed from South Burlington, Vermont. Summer
weather is finally, grudgingly coming into the Green Mountain State
as the Summer Solstice also arrives

The Summer Solstice officially arrives just before noon Friday in our neck of the woods. For once, the timing of the solstice and the arrival of summer weather roughly coincide here in Vermont.

We haven't had much truly summer weather yet. We haven't had many days that got into the 80s not a lot of humid days, not a lot of summertime thunderstorms.

But that is beginning to change.  Unevenly, but it's happening.

As you might have noticed, the last few days have been seasonably warm and pleasant, at least in northern Vermont. (Southern Vermont has had to contend with occasional showers.)

Today will remind us of typical summer weather, too. It'll be partly sunny, and there is a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. It doesn't look like any storms will be severe, and not all of us will get a storm. It will be the usual warm season scattered stuff as a weak system comes through.

At least part of Thursday will feel slightly humid as a stronger system approaches. A good slug of rain will come through Thursday night, especially in central and southern Vermont. NOAA's Weather Prediction Center has Vermont and most of the rest of New England under a slight risk for excessive rain Thursday night. However, if there is any flooding, it will be minor and localized, at least in Vermont.

We will get a brief interruption to full-on summer weather on Friday, solstice day, and Saturday, the first full day of summer. Both days will be a little on the cool side, but nothing odd of this time of year.

Then, back to summer. Sunday looks sunny and warm. Monday might be a bit humid, and we get into the chance of thunderstorms again Monday and especially on Tuesday, at least as it looks now. It is too soon to tell how extensive next week's storms might be, if they happen at all.

Summer has been really reluctant to arrive this year, but all indications look like it is finally here.

Oh, What The Heck? Let's Do Storm Videos Two Days In A Row

Yesterday, I posted videos of weekend storms, but didn't get to all of the ones I saw online.

I do call these videos "weather porn," as weather geeks do get a rise out of these videos. Since we're now somewhat in the summer weather doldrums, let's do two video days in a row.

So here we go. The first one involves the massive, severe thunderstorm that hit Dallas on June 9. (As noted yesterday, a second huge, tornadic thunderstorm hit Dallas-Fort Worth again on Sunday.)

This video involves the storm that knocked a construction crane onto an apartment complex, killing one person and injuring several others. The video here is a compilation of storm scenes on June 9 put together by television station WFAA. Talk about rough weather!



The next one shows security camera footage from several angles as a relatively small German tornado damages a house. In the middle of the clip, we see a man who clearly regrets going outside to secure his garage door:



Here's a really cool waterspout taken at close range recently just off shore of Marathon, in the Florida Keys:


Finally, you don't want this kind of turbulence about an airline flight.

This plane over Europe headed toward Basel, Switzerlahd recently encountered extreme turbulence, sending a flight attendant into the ceiling and sending a beverage cart flying. Ten people were taken to hospitals when the plane landed.

The flight attendent is reportedly not seriously injured. Watch:

Stormy Weather, So Stormy Videos Naturally Pop Up

Storm damage around Dallas-Fort Worth yesterday.

As I've repeatedly mentioned in this here blog thingy, it's been awfully stormy and wet and sometimes dangerous in many parts of the nation this spring and early summer.

Things continued on pace like this through the past weekend. So of course there's videos.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area got hit by severe storms for the second Sunday in a row.  Possible tornadoes caused damage in and around Fort Worth.

In this video, people probably should not have been standing outdoors. This shows a wall cloud that eventually produced a tornado after this video was shot.  Scary seeing this come at you, huh?



Here's LOTS of hail in Colorado:



It's not just the United States. Check out this video from southern France as a motorist encounters an intensifying hailstorm. A crack appears in the windshield, then things get dramatically worse:



Back in the United States, tornados extended to as far as the East Coast.  Here's a twister last Thursday re-arranging a back yard and pool area in Mullica Hill, New Jersey.

Modest Midwest Flood Reprieve Didn't Last Long; More Rain Pouring Down

It's relentless.

Here we go with the wet national forecast map again. Red areas
on this map can expect to get three or more inches of
rain over the next seven days. 

Downpours are once again striking parts of the Midwest this weekend, and that state of affairs will probably keep going all week.

This mess continues a wet drama in the nation's middle that began in March, or in some places earlier.

Through May, it was nation's wettest 12 month period on record. May was the nation's second wettest month since they started keeping track in 1895.

June is looking almost as soggy.

The heaviest rains this weekend and continuing into the week are mostly hitting the areas that already saw the most torrential downpours in April and May. Flash flood warnings were up this morning in parts of Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio.

During the course of this week three to seven inches of rain, with local higher amounts, are likely in a wide band from Kansas and Oklahoma east and northeastward through the Tennessee and Ohio valleys and on into the Middle Atlantic states.

The wet weather continues to vex Midwestern farmers, who have struggled to get soggy fields planted. Not all the expected corn is planted yet, and it should have been. CNBC reported that Chicago-traded July corn futures contracts jumped by 2.5 percent Friday to $4.53 per bushel. That's the highest level since the middle of 2014.

Since corn and corn syrup goes into so much of our food, I would expect to see higher prices at the grocery store later this year. This is on top of the tariffs with the current trade wars. Ugh.

As has been the case this stormy year, we in Vermont will get our share of rain, but it generally won't be super heavy. I would want to watch southern Vermont in particular, especially by the end of the week, as rains could turn out to be pretty excessive there.  It's not a sure bet, but something to watch.

It appears northern Vermont will be mostly dry until Thursday, but far southern Vermont will get a good dousing today, then remain under a risk of showers until Thursday. It looks like the end of the week will be the wettest period for the Green Mountain State.

I'll also give my usual statement when it comes to excessive rain. I can't say with any certainty if climate change is causing or influencing this relentless rain. I can say these super rains are consistent with climate change.

Warmer air can hold more water vapor than chillier air. So if a storm bumps into air that is a little toastier than it would otherwise be without climate change, chances are the associated precipitation would come down harder than it would in a cooler world.

Big Melt This Week In Greenland Is Bad, But Not (Yet) The End Of The World

Orange areas are spots in Greenland that
experienced melting on Thursday. That's
a very unsually large area for this
early in the season.

This sounds dire: Just on Wednesday, two billion tons of ice melted off of Greenland.

To put it in perspective, though, the two billion tons of ice that melted off of Greenland in one day is certainly very bad news, but it doesn't mean the whole ice sheet will go away in a flash. The vast, vast majority of the ice is still obviously very much there in Greenland.

But still. Forty-five percent of the Greenland ice sheet surface was melting Wednesday, which is pretty much the most anybody has seen this early in the season.  Temperatures were as much as 40 degrees above normal in Greenland, notes the Washington Post.

A very high elevation weather station in Greenland, aptly named Summit, briefly went above freezing this week. Thaws are rare at Summit. The last time it happened was in July, 2012, the Washington Post notes.

Much of the thawed ice that didn't manage to flow into the oceans will refreeze in cooler days ahead, but the initial thawing has weakened some of the ice, making it more prone to melting if it gets warm again later this summer.

Climatologists always worry about Greenland's ice sheet. As it melts off, it flows into the ocean and raises global sea levels. This year, the melt season in Greenland is definitely off to a bad start. It could rival the big melt of 2012, which is the benchmark for Greenland thawing.

Then again, the weather patterns might change and the melting could slow.  The fact that melting started in some corners of Greenland in late April amid record warmth, and the thaw continued off and on through May and the first part of June is ominous.

Arctic sea ice extent is so far at record low levels for this time
of year. This trend might or might not continue, depending upon
weather conditions in July and August. 

The bulk of the summer season thaw in Greenland is in July. Now that there has already been some thawing, much of the freshest, whitest snow atop the ice has gone away.

That leaves relatively dirty ice exposed, which attracts more of the sun's heat than pure white stuff. Which in turns means the risk of faster melting.

This latest melting episode in Greenland seems to be a case of climate change teaming up with a natural weather pattern.

The dreaded negative phase of what is known as the North Atlantic Oscillation is going on at the moment.

That pattern creates warm, sunny high pressure systems to sit over Greenland (and at the same time pushing chilly air southward into the mid-latitudes. This can help make it cool and cloudy here in Vermont. I bet you noticed that during this spring.)

Climate change is probably making what would already have been an odd warm spell in Greenland a little bit warmer.

It's not just Greenland that's been a toasty Arctic spot lately. Arctic sea ice is at its lowest level for mid-June since satellites started monitoring it in 1979, the Washington Post tells us.

Ice loss in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along Alaska's northern coast is "unprecedented, said Rick Thoman, a Fairbanks-based climatologist.  Since so much water is already exposed, the sun will have a chance to warm the water, which could encourage further record-level ice melting  near the North Pole.

If a lot of ice melts in the Arctic Ocean, that won't raise sea levels like Greenland's melt would.  The melting Arctic Ocean ice is like ice cubes melting in your glass of gin and tonic. The water level won't change. Greenland's melt is like a colander filled with ice held over the glass. The thawing ice would drip into the glass, eventually causing it to overflow.

With or without climate change, Arctic weather is highly variable. There's always a chance the weather in the far north could turn cloudier and cooler for the rest of the summer. That would prevent this year from being another record melt, like 2012 was. We'll just have to wait and see on that one.

TV Meteorologist FIred For Rebelling Against Alarmist Corporate Warning Slogans

Meteorologist Joe Crain was fired from a Sinclair-owned television
station, apparently after he criticized the unnecessarily alarmist
"Code Red" weather warnings at his station.

This is why I often hate it when large conglomerates own dozens of media outlets.  What follows is just one example of corporate bullcrap defying logic.

Meteorologist Joe Crain has been fired from the on-air position he has held since 2004 at television station WICS in Springfield, Illinois.  This, as is often the case, is all about marketing at the expense of accuracy.

WICS is owned by an outfit called Sinclair Broadcast Group. They're really a rather loathesome media conglomerate that is the largest owner of local television stations in the United States. Sinclair has both a marketing and political agenda that goes even beyond the nonsense of most major media companies.

I've written before about the evil Sinclair, how they force what had been trusted local news anchors to read pro-Trump editorial screeds instead of actually reporting the news.  Like most people, I want news, not demands from anchors that I support some politician, be they Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi.

Anyway, the marketing geniuses at Sinclair decided that every weather alert on their television newscasts should be labeled as "Code Red" in all caps, with a lightning bolt in the logo. Yes, weather warnings are good, and I dn't mind television stations doing their own spin on these things, as long as they're accurate.

For instance, there's a local television station, WPTZ here in Vermont and New York that markets "First Alert"- going as far as to label their meteorologists as, for instance, "First Alert Meteorologist Tom Messner."

A little cutesy, I suppose, but I can go over that pretty easily. They're fine.

However, Sinclair''s "Code Red" scares the pants off people with too many false alarms.  Sinclair's "Code Red" didn't make a distinction between, say, a brief local downpour and an extremely dangerous EF-5 tornado.

WICS viewers hated the "Code Red" nonesense and let anyone who would listen know it. Unfortunately, Crain was listening but his overlords at Sinclair were not.

Recently, Crain acknowledged the local distaste for "Code Red" on air.  He said, "A lot of people were not very happy with this over the last few months since we've implemented it on Storm Team 20.....That's evident by the thousands of comments on social media, letters to the editor, frequent calls to local talk shows."

Crain explained to viewers that the Code Red warnings were a "corporate initiative" and said that "behind the scense, any of us have tried to dissuade it for the lst few months, to try something else that's less controverial to the viewers."

The main problem with "Code Red," Crain explained, is that it's not nuanced. When the National Weather Service issues storm alerts or warnings, they use something of a detailed scale that gives people some sense of the degree of danger. Like I said above, the National Weather Service lets the public know whether they should be mildly concerned or panicked over an impending storm.

Code Red encourages just panic. It has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with marketing. If you scare people, they will tune in. People will hear "Code Red" and think they have to tune in right away to see about that EF-5 tornado that in reality does not exist.  The more people tune in, the better the revenue, accuracy be damned.

In a minor bright side, I suppose, WICS is abandoning "Code Red" in favor of another way of broadcasting storm alerts.  WICS, like some other Sinclair stations, are now using the phrase "Weather Warn."

However, Sinclair has apparently fired Crain.

People both locally around Springfield, Illinois and across the nation are NOT happy with this. A Change.org petition to bring back Crain has gotten more than 16,000 signatures.

This has even gotten the attention of Stephen Colbert, who had a segment on his show about Crain, which you can watch at the bottom of this post.

Yes, a television station or pretty much any employer can fire an employee at will. And many bosses don't like rebellion. In this case, though, Sinclair really stepped in it, and have screwed this up big time. It's probably too late to bring Crain back to WICS, but I hope he gets a good gig at another television station soon.

Here's Colbert's clip Totally worth the watch:

Germany Hailstorm Causes Serious Damage

Chaos in Germany: Cracked windshields from hail
and cars stranded in flash flooding near Munich.
Photo via Twitter, @MegabrainTV 

Here in the United States, we've hit a relative, temporary lull in severe thunderstorm activity after a very busy May.

Things look like they might pick up again in the middle of the country. We'll have to see about that. '

Meanwhile, as you can see in the dramatic videos at the bottom of this post, extreme hailstorms hit parts of Germany on Monday, especially around Munich and other areas of Bavaria.

The hail was as big as tennis balls. Such storms hitting a populated area like Munich probably caused tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

Countless cars had cracked and broken windows, as did houses and buildings. Roofing and siding also took a serious hit.

Several people were injured, but no deaths were reported in the Monday storms.

New storms struck eastern Germany Tuesday, with another round of large damaging hail, this time around Saxony and Brandenburg. Potsdam, Germany reported severe flash flooding and wind damage .
The weather is forecast to remain unsettled around Munich and other areas of Germany for the next few days, with more thunderstorms possible Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, according to The Weather Channel.

Some videos:

Here's a compilation video of some of the hailstorms around Munich on Monday:



Here's one of many motorists in Germany losing a windshield

Another Summer, And Record Heat Waves In World Are Starting To Pop

People in India wilting in this months record heat.
Photo via Getty Images.

Here in Vermont, we haven't had much in the way of summer heat. At least not yet.

The hottest it's been in Burlington so far this young summer is 85 degrees. And there is no sign yet of any sustained hot weather. It's actually going to be a bit cooler than normal over the next few days.

Last summer, heat waves blossomed in many, many areas of the Northern Hemisphere, including Vermont.  At least six deaths were attributed to the Vermont heat last July, making the hot spell the state's worst weather disaster since Hurricane Irene in 2011.

A lot of the heat waves around the world last year were  attributed to climate change.  At the time, I wondered if this year would be a repeat of those frequent, record setting heat waves.

You wouldn't know it here in Vermont with the cool weather, but the summer is off to a rough start in the Northern Hemisphere. There have already been some big, record setting, dangerous heat waves.

Much of India normally broils in May and June, before the seasonal monsoons hit. This year is no exception, except the heat there is even worse and more dangerous than anyone has seen.  New Delhi reached 118 degrees, the city's hottest reading on record.

In the lower elevations of India,  a heat wave is declared if daily temperatures reach or exceed 104 degrees. This heat wave is threatening to become the longest on record. The Hindustan Times said this hot spell has lasted 32 days so far.  The record longest heat wave lasted 33 days, so they're very close.

Elsewhere, Finland and parts of Russia just recorded the hottest weather on record for so early in the season.

Record heat has engulfed the West Coast, too. For three days in a row, numerous towns and cities in the San Francisco Bay Area have seen record high temperatures.  It got up to 100 degrees at the San Francisco airport Monday, tying the record for the fifth hottest day on record there.

That 100 degree reading is also the first time it's been that hot in San Francisco in a month other than September, which is when the Bay Area gets its most intense heat waves.  Monterey, California reached 97 degrees, the hottest day on record for meteorological summer (June-August.)

The heat is extending northward into Oregon and Washington, too.

In far southern Texas, record heat combined wit stifling humidity to create a heat index of 128 degrees, which of course is damn dangerous.

It looks like it will be a long, hot summer. If not in Vermont, then elsewhere

South Dakota's Gavin Point Dam Scary With Water Releases

Water surges from the Gavins Point Dam in Yankton, South Dakota
on Sunday. This is the second largest water release from
this dam on record. 

I'm almost done with my annual trip to Yankton, South Dakota.

Yesterday, we went to the Gavins Point Dam along the Missouri River near Yankton, which was drawing a crowd.

That's because it has been so wet in the Plains and Midwest that dams, including Gavins Point, have had to release tons of water because of the excessive flows.

Gavins Point is having its second biggest release on record. Only 2011 had a bigger release. This, of course, is contributing to flooding downstream, but there's nothing anything can do about it. The water has to go somewhere.

According to the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, they recently had to increase the Gavins Point Dam release to 70,000 cubic feet per second. That's up to 65,000 cubic feet per second in late May and 60,000 cubic feet per second earlier this spring.

The rushing water from these releases is something to behold. The photos don't do it justice.  The water roars out of the dam, then a short distance downstream, the river turns into this boiling, churning mess that would probably rip apart anyone who had the misfortune of being in the water. Spray blew willy nilly in the central plains wind gusts.

Just downstream, people in rocking boats collect fish from the roiling water. Signs that you would think are unnecessary warn boaters not to get too close to the dam. But some people aren't bright, so you need the signs, I guess.

Roiling water just below the Gavins Point Dam in Yankton,
South Dakota on Sunday

Gavins Point Dam releases will continue into the fall. Rain has temporarily tapered off in the Missouri River watershed upstream from Yankton, but I'm sure it will come back.

Also, it's been a late spring in Wyoming and Montana, and there's still plenty of snow up in the mountains there.

It's finally heating up in the northern Rockies, so the snowmelt will add more surges into the Missouri River over the next several weeks. That's just one of many examples of why the flooding in the middle of the nation has lasted so long, and why it will continue.

Gavins Point Dam is the last dam on the Missouri River, so the releases are causing high water all the way downstream to the where the river empties into the Mississippi River in St. Louis. Meanwhile, fairly substantial rains are expected to continue for at least the next week in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

You can see how this problem isn't going away anytime soon.

There are so many rivers and tributaries and levees and watersheds and other features in the huge Missouri and Mississippi River valleys. Gavins Point Dam is only one cog in this huge mess.

Here's a video of the Gavins Point Dam on Sunday.