Gorgeous But Fleeting Vermont Foliage To Fade This Week

Fall foliage in my St. Albans, Vermont back yard Sunday.

You know the end of the spectacular fall foliage season is about to come to end when a wind gust of maybe 5 mph sends a blizzard of orange maple leaves off the tree you're standing under.

That was the situation Sunday, a gorgeous peak fall foliage day while I was working in a yard in Richmond, Vermont.

With lots more wind in the forecast this week, foliage season will largely end. Not completely, of course.

There will still be splashes of color statewide, and warmer spots like the Champlain Valley and lowlands in southern Vermont will hang on to the fall beauty even with the wind and rain expected between now and Friday.

Early this morning, leaves were already blowing around like crazy when I got up in St. Albans, Vermont.  Winds were only gusting to about 20 mph, so it wasn't exactly a storm. But there you go. Expect winds like that all day today, so the leaves will be falling.

Fall foliage just beginning to fade Sunday near Hinesburg, Vermont.

After a cooler, but sunny and tranquil day Tuesday, Mother Nature's leaf blower will really get going Wednesday and Thursday.  A storm will pass to our north starting Wednesday, which would pick up winds from the southeast.

Meanwhile, a nor'easter will begin to form off the coast of Virginia and head toward coastal New England, all the while strengthening rapidly. This will all but guarantee wind gusts in the 25 to 35 mph range locally into Thursday night.

Depending upon how close the nor'easter comes to the coast, we could also have some pretty heavy rain later Wednesday and Wednesday night from the nor'easter. That would also help the leaves to drop.

It all sounds disappointing, but I think one thing that makes fall foliage so wonderful in Vermont is its fleeting nature. This type of windy week happens pretty much every October, which ends foliage season, well, every October.

Besides, this won't be a terrible storm for us. Southern Vermont, in particular could use more rain. (Northern areas are pretty OK with above normal rainfall over the past few weeks.

Southern New England endured wind and rain from another  offshore nor'easter that turned into a tropical storm last week, so they're probably sick of inclement weather. We here in most of Vermont, escaped with nice weather last week.

Southern and eastern New England will bear the brunt of this next nor'easter as well, with the risk of strong winds and heavier rainfall than Vermont would get.

Unlike the last storm that missed Vermont, this one will move right along and be out of our hair on Friday.

TYPHOON HAGIBIS

A much bigger, more newsworthy storm hit Japan over the weekend in the form of Typhoon Hagibis.

Typhoons are fairly common in Japan, but this one might have been the worst in 60 years.

It had been a super typhoon out over the eastern Pacific, with winds of 150 mph. Those dropped down to 90 mph or so by the time the storm hit Japan. So the wind, while intense, was not the worst that Japan can get.

What made this typhoon so bad was that it was even wetter than your typical typhoon. That meant the flooding was immense.

So far, nearly 50 deaths have been reported, with more people missing. Tens of thousands have been evacuated. Some areas received 30 or more inches of rain during the typhoon


Hagibis