Arthur Gone. So Are East Coast Storms. For Now

The weather is calmer over this Sunday over the East Coast now that Hurricane Arthur is gone and that weather front that was hung up over the Northeast also went out to sea.  

Hurricane Arthur south of New England Saturday. 

Damage from the front and Arthur hit a wide swath, from North Carolina all the way up into the Canadian Maritimes.

It was odd to see a still well-formed hurricane off the New England coast on satellite pictures on July 4, but there you have it. More odd weather.

As Arthur was departing it caused what had to be the WORST possible July afternoon weather in Caribou Maine.

At 3 p.m. Saturday, Caribou reported heavy rain, winds gusting to 46 mph and a temperature of just 50 degrees. Yuck!

The weather front that was to the west of Arthur as it passed by was probably in some respects worse than Arthur itself. The hurricane's moisture interacted with the front to cause substantial flooding in southeastern New England Saturday, especially around New Bedford.

And of course there were those severe thunderstorms that raked the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic on Friday. Here in northern Vermont, I was just to the north of the worst storms, but while I was out watching the storms, I did see something curious.

I was on the south end of a strong, but not severe storm. A cloud lowered over Charlotte, Vermont. It totally mimicked a wall cloud, the type of cloud that produces tornadoes.  You can a picture of it in this post. It wasn't a wall cloud, at least I don't THINK it was, but it just goes to show how sometimes storms can scare people into thinking it's worse than it is.  

An odd, low cloud over Mount Philo in
Charlotte, Vermont, as a strong thunderstorm
passed just to the north.  

Which causes a false sense of security, because storms can initially appear not severe at all, then prove to be very dangerous. It can catch people unaware.

One of the worst storms of the outbreak Friday caused a swath of pretty substantial damage from the southern Adirondacks, then north of Saratoga Springs, New York, then on into Rutland County, Vermont, where there was a lot of wind and hail damage, then east central Vermont.

From there, it formed a bow echo, which caused enormous wind damage in central New Hampshire and western Maine.

The storms will come back to the interior Northeast as another cold front approaches. Some of the storms could be strong or even somewhat severe, but I don't think Monday's storms will be as bad as last Friday's.

Here's a speeded up version of the severe storm in Rutland, Vermont which shows the intensity of that long tracked, severe storm I mentioned above:

Arthur, Storms, Flood. Wild Weather Week, Day 3

Hurricane Arthur made landfall last night  at around 11:15 p.m near Shackleford Banks between Cape Lookout and Beauford, North Carolina with sustained winds of 100 mph or so.

A severe thunderstorm invades
New York City on Thursday.  n

It was the first Catagory 2 landfalling hurricane in the Uniteds States in years, and certainly one of the earliest.

I do know there was a lot of storm surge flooding and wind damage in eastern North Carolina from this, but I don't have a lot of details yet as dawn breaks. But it's a mess down there.

Arthur is moving away from North Carolina but it's still going to cause trouble.

That slow moving cold front we've been talking about in the Northeast again raised all kinds of havoc across the Northeast yesterday.

Severe thunderstorms and lots of wind and hail damage were reported in every state in New England, and from every East Coast state from Maine to Florida for that matter.

New Hampshire and southern New York seemed to take the brunt of it. So did southern Vermont. One of the strongest cells came out of the southern Adirondacks, through central Vermont, and formed a bow echo with lots of damage in central New Hampshire.

My sister Lynn said as the storm came through the Rutland, Vermont area, intense hail shredded her gardens. Some hail in Rutland County was at least as big as golf balls. She also said her home in West Rutland had about 1.75 inches of rain in less than half an hour.

Severe thunderstorms with wind won't be as much of a problem today, but flooding will. Some areas in New York and New England had some flash flooding yesterday. Everybody got rain, so the ground is pretty wet.

That cold front is still hung up in the Northeast, waiting for Arthur to go by. The southeastern half of New England looks like it's under the gun for heavy rain from that front, and moisture from Arthur, so look for some possible flooding today.

The New York City area down into New Jersey and toward Washington DC might get some flooding rains as well.

Interior areas of the Northeast, like all but southeastern Vermont, inland New York and Pennsylvania should only get lighter showers today.

Arthur will sideswipe Cape Cod and the islands tonight with heavy rain and strong winds. Tropical storm warnings are up for those areas.

Finally, we get out of this mess tomorrow, Arthur and the cold front go out to sea, and the rest of the weekend looks nice.