And You Thought The Mother's Day Weekend Snow In Vermont Was Weird

Traffic cam of Interstate 80 in Laramie, Wyoming. Yes, this was
taken this morning, June 9

It's June 9. Practically summer.

Imagine waking up to this on your morning weather report:

Winter storm warning....Heavy wet snow. Additional accumulations of 2 to 4 inches, Total accumulations of 5 to 8 inches. Winds gusting as high as 35 mph....Impacts: Some power lines and numerous tree branches will be down. Roads will be slushy and snowcapped, and icy in spots especially over bridges."

That was the state of affairs in Laramie Wyoming this morning, as very odd weather continues to hit the West and parts of the northern Plains.

Snow fell from Washington to Montana and south to Colorado over the past couple of days.  Snowfalls in the Rocky Mountains happen almost yearly in June, but this one is more extreme than usual, that's for sure.

Ski resorts in much of Colorado had fresh powder this morning. Snow plows were clearing slush and ice of Interstate 70 in Loveland Pass, Colorado, west of Denver.

This is all part of a very stormy pattern over the north central United States. The remnants of Cristobol continue moving through the Midwest toward the western Great Lakes and Canada, carrying a flood threat with it.

A separate storm that will eventually merge with former Cristobal is creating an odd wind storm in Kansas and Nebraska. Winter and early spring storms often carry widespread 60 to 70 mph wind gusts with them, but those storms don't happen in June.

This one IS  happening in June with forecasted wind gusts in that 60-75 mph range. Leafless trees in the winter don't fall as easily as ones with leaves.  The leaves act like little sails in strong winds, which will  pull down a lot of branches and trees in the central Plains today.

By the way, a few tornadoes are also likely today in parts of eastern Kansas and Nebraska, and in Illinois and surrounding states.

Back in Laramie, meanwhile winter redux will come to an abrupt end later this morning. They're expecting a high temperture of 57 degrees there today under increasing sunshine.  That's still chilly for this time of year - normal highs this time of year in Laramie are around 70 degrees - but at least the snow will melt quickly.

Some videos:

Nighttime video of snow laden trees and power flashes from  branches falling on lines in or near Laramie:



In a rather high elevation spot in Colorado this morning:

Bigger Than Usual Severe Weather Outbreak Colorado To Mid-Atlantic In The Works

The National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyoming shared on Twitter
this photo by Cody Calhoun of a tornado and lightning strike
near Burns, Wyoming on Sunday. Severe weather will
head east through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states
through Tuesday. 

We here in Vermont had a gorgeous day Sunday, with temperatures in the 70s to low 80s, plenty of sunshine and low humidity.

Let's just say the weather in Vermont was a bit better than in, say, Otis, Colorado, which had at least one tornado and hail the size of grapefruit. Yikes! There were at least 10 reports of tornadoes Sunday, mostly in Colorado.

The severe weather in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas Sunday was the beginnings of a larger than usual severe weather and tornado outbreak that will eventually extend eastward through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states through Tuesday.

You can pretty much always find areas of strong and severe thunderstorms in the summer, but it's usually not as widespread as those spring outbreaks. But this one will pack a big punch, at least by August standards.

There's a strong heat wave going on now in the Gulf States and mid-Mississippi Valley. A weak storm, though one that's stronger than usual for the dog days of August is on the northern edge of this hot spell. The system is heading east from Iowa, and will go through Illinois and Ohio before ending up somewhere around Pennslyvania or Maryland by Tuesday.

This combination, which includes winds changing speed and direction with height, great instability and such will keep the severe weather going along and to the south of this storm's path. Today, the focus for severe weather will center on Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

If anything, Tuesday looks more interesting as ingredients might be coming together for a bigger outbreak of bad weather, focusing on New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

For the second year in a row, this area has already been battered by an unusual number of severe storms and tornadoes. For instance, New Jersey has had eight tornadoes so far this year. They normally average two per year.

This upcoming storm will certainly continue the Mid-Atlantic severe weather trend. I'm pretty sure we'll get at least a couple reports of tornadoes out of the Mid-Atlantic states Tuesday, along with wind damage, hail and flash flooding.

This dangerous weather outbreak will miss us here in Vermont, so be glad for that. A weak cold front, one ingredient that will contribute to the severe weather well south of us, will come through here today and tonight.

While the cold front is passing through Vermont, it won't have much oomph. There will be scattered showers and thunderstorms ahead of and with this thing this afternoon and evening. One or two storms might be briefly, locally strong, but don't count on much in the way of fireworks.

The storm causing the havoc in the Mid-Atlantic will throw some rain through the southern half of Vermont Tuesday, but again, nothing dramatic.

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:

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.

Are You Missing Snow? Plenty Still Out West

Looks like January, but this is a frozen high elevation lake in
California's Sierra Nevada mountains in mid-May 

The last of the snow on top of Mount Mansfield has (IS) finally disappeared.

The snow was unusually deep up there during the late winter and spring, and a cool April and May meant that it melted slowly.  As of Saturday, there was still one inch of snow at the stake near the top of Mount Mansfield.

So it's just about gone. I imagine it wil disappear in today's warmth.

Of course, if you get even more snow than Mount Mansfield, the white covering lasts a lot longer.

Which, if you're already missing snow,  takes us to the mountains in the western United States. The water content of the snow lingering in the Colorado mountains is more than six times the average for early June, says the Weather Channel.

Only three other years since 1979 had a higher snowpack in the upper Colorado and South Platte River basins, says the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado.

The Sierra Nevada range in California still has two to four times the early June average snow pack.  As of June 5 or so, a measuring station at Leavitt Lake still had 141 inches of snow on the ground.

An estimated 150 lakes above the elevation of 7,000 feet are still frozen.  At least three ski areas, Mammoth Mountain, Squaw Valley and Donnor Ski Ranch are still open. Mammoth Mountain expects to stay open into early August.

Some new snow managed to fall in some areas of the Northwest and in Canada last week. Snow dusted high elevations of Idaho, Montana and Oregon Thursday, with snow reported at elevations as low as 4,800 feet in Oregon.

As much as four inches of snow fell near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The West is warming up dramatically this week, so snow melt will also ramp up big time.  Excessive heat alerts are in effect Monday and Tuesday for lower elevations of California and parts of Oregon Monday and Tuesday.

That of course means it will be pretty toasty up in the Sierra Nevada, too. People are being warmed that streams and rivers coming out of the Sierra will rise dramatically each night as runoff reaches lower elevations.  Campers and hikers are being told to stay on high ground, away from any potential flooding.

These rivers will also be flowing wildly, and have very cold water. After all, it's coming from melting snow. People are being told to stay away from these rivers and creeks, as the cold water will kill them quickly if they fall in.

Similar warnings due to mountain snowmelt are in effect in Colorado, Utah and Montana.

Tornadoes Didn't Hit Big Towns, But Extreme Weather Continues

News9 in Oklahoma City captured these twin tornadoes
north of Oklahoma City Monday. Photo via Matt Mahler
on Twitter. 

That highly anticipated tornado outbreak in Texas and Oklahoma did roar into being on Monday, but thankfully, none of the larger tornadoes went right through major towns.

There was plenty of damage from the 22 tornadoes reported in the region so far, but no deaths. A particularly nasty tornado hit the outskirts of Magnum, Oklahoma, causing lots of damage.

Tornado warnings are still going out in eastern Oklahoma this morning, and more twisters are a definite possibility, especially in Missouri and Arkansas later today.  

FLOODING WORSE THAN TORNADOES

As I alluded to yesterday, the flooding in the region is actually worse than the tornadoes. There is widespread, serious flooding going on in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, and the rains keep falling.

Areas in red can expect several inches more of rain over
the next seven days with continued serious flooding. 

The weather pattern is "stuck" again, with a ridge of hot high pressure in the Southeast and a deep dip in the jet stream in the West. This is creating a parade of storms moving diagonally southwest to northeast in the middle of the nation.

This is, of course, very bad news, as the severe storm risk will continue all week in the Midwest.  Worse, repeated bursts of heavy rain will fall on already flooded areas, worsening the situation Parts of Oklahoma got six inches or more of rain just yesterday.

Parts of Interstate 40 west of Oklahoma City were closed by flooding this morning. Water was invading the Ponca City, Oklahoma police station. Cars were swept off roads by flooding in Joplin, Missouri, says the Weather Channel.

Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas can expect at least six inches more rain in the next seven days. This is on top of serious flooding going on already in those states.

COLORADO SNOW, AGAIN

In the cold air to the west of the storminess, odd late season snow continues to fall in Colorado, Wyoming and in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Denver reported three inched of new snow, one of only seven times since 1882 that an inch or  more of snow has fallen in the city.

Unfortunately, the wet, heavy snow was snapping branches on trees that had already leafed out. Car crashes on snowy highways led to the temporary closure on Interstate 70 through the mountains.

SUBTROPICAL STORM ANDREA

In one more unusual weather event in a week of odd weather, Subtropical Storm Andrea formed yesterday well off the Southeast U.S. coast. It's weak and will probably dissipate tomorrow, but this is yet another year in which a tropical or tropical type storm formed ahead of the normal hurricane season, which starts June 1.

VERMONT/NEW ENGLAND UPDATE

The Storm Prediction Center has Vermont in
a marginal risk zone for severe thunderstorms
Thursday, with a somewhat greater chance off to our west

Luckily, little in the way of severe weather developed in New England Monday, despite much of the region being under a severe thunderstorm watch. Storms did cause some tree damage in and around Providence, Rhode Island.

Here in Vermont, we were lucky that most places didn't get any additional torrential downpours during the day Monday.

The storms Sunday night dumped up to three inches of rain in a few hours in parts of central Vermont, leading to minor flooding and road washouts.

Sunday night's heavy rain will prolong the Lake Champlain flooding. By Sunday, the lake had fallen to 100.25 feet, which is just four inches or so above flood stage. It looked like the very long, but minor flood that began on April 20 would end soon.

But the lake is temporarily rising again, getting up to around 100.4 feet by this morning. It'll start to fall again soon, unless we get more heavy rain.

The next shot of rain is Thursday, when another round of showers and thunderstorms will blow through. There's even a marginal chance of perhaps a few more severe storms. We'll see.

All those storms in the Plains will keep ejected northeastward toward us over the next week, so we'll get frequent bouts of rain with just short intervals of dry weather in between. Luckily, they won't be as intense as they were in the Plains by the time they get here, but we'll still have to watch occasionally for locally heavy rain through next week.

Stormy Here, But At Least It's Not Snowing (Yet)

At my place in St. Albans, Vermont, we awoke to a stormy morning at dawn, with lots of wind and rain, occasionally heavy, whipping the greening trees.

It's expected to be on the wet and cloudy side all day today, and after an OK weekend, the gloom will return next week.  But it could be worse. Ask anyone in Duluth, Minneota.

In this photo by Derek Montgomery for Minnesota Public Radio,
we have an aerial view of cars making patterns in the snow
at a University of Minnesota/Duluth parking lot Thursday. 

It's supposed to be well into spring, including in the nation's icebox of northern Minnesota. But a storm Wednesday night and Thursday morning in Duluth dumped more than 10 inches of snow.

According to the Duluth News Tribune:

"All told, 10.6 inches of snow accumulated at Duluth International Airport, a record for May that also included a single day record of 8.3 inches on Wednesday alone. It was the snowiest May day on record since 5.5 inches fell in 1902."  

Many other areas of northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin picked up two to nine inches of snow.

That area wasn't the nation's only wintry spot. Much of Colorado, including the Denver metro aera had a snowy Thursday. Some mountainous areas picked up more than a foot of new snow.

It does snow in and around Denver occasionally in May. Still, it was a spring setback. Probably nobody felt the snowy chill more than college graduates at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which held its commencement ceremony outdoors despite the snowstorm. 

The weather in both Duluth and Colorado are improving today, mostly because conditions couldn't really get worse this time of year. High temperatures around Duluth for the next few days should be in the 50s to low 60s with no sign of additional snow.

In Denver, readings should climb into the 50s today after a frosty start, and reach the upper 70s by Monday.

We here in Vermont might get in on the snowy times, at least in the mountains. A chilly storm will meander through Monday, Tuesday and into Wednesday. It might get cold enough Tuesday and Tuesday night for snow to accumulate in the Green Mountains and Adirondacks.

So far at least, it looks like the valleys will be spared the snow, but it will be unseasonably cold during the storm, with highs on Tuesday only in the 40s.

That Storm In Middle Of The Nation Was One Of Worst On Record (It Ain't Over, Either)

Winds gusting to 80 mph or more in Colorado during Wednesday's
blizzard caused plenty of damage. Photo by Victor Loya via KDVR

Weather geeks like me everywhere are scraping their jaws off the floor this morning watching that epic storm in the middle of the nation.

The wind, the flooding, the blizzard and the low barometric pressure truly make this a historic storm. The howler is beginning to weaken now, but is still powerful enough to raise more havoc today.

There will be some effects of this in Vermont that we'll want to watch, but it won't be anything like the zone that was really hit. So we'll get into that first. (Some pretty wild videos are at the bottom of this post.)

INCREDIBLE WINDS

The winds are what impressed me the most out of this storm, though there was a lot to leave us impressed.  Storms on the High Plains in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas and elsewhere often feature some big wind gusts, but this was beyond the pale.

Here are some wind gust reports:
96 mph in Colorado Springs and Peterson AFB.
92 mph near Glen Haven, Colorado
89 mph in Hemingford, Nebraska and Cheraw, Colorado
88 mph La Junta, Colorado
80 mph Limon, Colorado, where the wind gusted to at least 67 mph for nine consecutive hours
80 mph Amarillo, Texas

As you can imagine, there was a lot of wind damage.  Plenty of roofs were damaged, Many tractor trailer trucks were blown off highways and countless trees blew down. A 26-car train derailed near Logan, New Mexico, largely because the wind shoved it off the tracks. The air traffic control tower at the Amarillo, Texas airport was evacuated because 80 mph gusts were blowing the siding off the building.

BLIZZARD

The blizzard associated with this giant storm, especially in Colorado, collected a lot of the news headlines.  The storm basically shut down Colorado.

In Denver, 1,350 flights were canceled. Much of Interstates 80, 25, 76 and 70 shut down. (In Nebraska and South Dakota, flooding closed parts of Interstates 29 and 90. More on that in a bit.)

The National Guard had to rescue more than 1,000 people stranded on roads in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska, the Weather Channel reported. A Colorado State Patrol corporal was hit and killed by a vehicle whil trying to help a stranded motorist in Weld County, Colorado. More than a dozen vehicles were in a pileup elsewhere in Colorado.

 Blizzard warnings remained in effect this morning from the northeastern corner of Colorado all the way up through the eastern half of North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

FLOODING

Flooding Wednesday in Yankton, South Dakota. Photo by
Kelly Hertz, Yankton Press & Dakotan

Heavy rain and snow melt really caused some problems, especially in eastern Nebraska, eastern South Dakota and western Iowa.

Yankton, South Dakota reported nearly three inches of rain, which fell on melting snow and frozen ground. Serious flooding erupted there. 

Rivers throughout northeastern Nebraska, southeastern South Dakota and northwestern Iowa are at major flood stage or soon will be.

In many of the flooded areas in this region, rain was changing to snow this morning and winds were picking up, adding to the misery.

MORE BAD WEATHER

On the bright side, no tornadoes were reported with this mega-storm on Wednesday. There were at least a half dozen of them in New Mexico and Texas on Tuesday.

The risk of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes will actually increase today, even as the parent storm weakens. A broad zone from southern Michigan all the way down to Mississippi and Alabama are at risk of severe thunderstorms and some tornadoes today.

The bigger risk is strong straight line winds, but winds are changing big time in direction and speed with height from Ohio and Indiana south through Kentucky and Tennessee. That's a recipe for at least some tornadoes. That will have to be watched today.  A tornado watch was already up in parts of Tennessee and Mississippi this morning.

HERE IN VERMONT

Once again in our constant winter, a small weather disturbance over produced with snow last evening. That's the second time this has happened in the past three days. Burlington received 3.4 inches of snow, as opposed to forecasts of an inch.

All this just increases slightly the amount of snow on the ground that will need to melt. The big storm in the middle of the country is finally pumping warm air up into our neck of the woods today.  Eventually, high temperatures will get to near 50 degrees this afternoon.

This warm air is fairly humid. Snow melts faster when the air is wet than when the air is dry. Moreover, it will stay above freezing overnight and readings will soar well into the 50s on Friday.

Some showers will  pass through Vermont Friday morning as well.

This isn't a recipe for widespread flooding, but ice jams are a real hazard over the next few days. River ice is thick. Runoff from the melting snow will make rivers rise, dislodging some of the ice. The ice will start moving downstream and in some cases, jam up.

This means a few areas in and near Vermont could easily have some sudden ice jam floods Friday and Saturday. That's why a flood watch is up for the region. 

Beyond this storm, most of the nation, including the hard-hit middle of the nation, and here in Vermont, will get a break from the wild weather. Colorado, and the flood zone in the upper Mississippi Valley will have about a week of mostly dry weather.

We'll need that time to take a deep breath, right?

Some videos:

Here's a clip of the blizzard in Colorado Springs. What strikes me about the video is how loud this blizzard is, given the strong wind gusts:



Next up: One of several tractor trailers being blown off a highway due to the very strong winds:



I go out to Yankton, South Dakota at least once a year to visit relatives. So I recognize most of the landmarks in this video of some substantial flooding in Yankton:

Colorado Avalanches At "Historic" Levels; Slam Onto Highway, Hit Cars: Scary Videos

An avalanche begins to engulf Interstate 70 in Colorado
a few days ago. Nobody was hurt.

UPDATE 3 PM 3/7/19

The avalanche situation in Colorado has definitely worsened since Tuesday.

The National Weather Service in Denver/Boulder has an avalanche warning for most parts of the Colorado Rockies into Friday morning at least.

There's an extreme danger of avalanches in some of Colorado's mountainous regions. The NWS avalanche warning doesn't kid around: "We may see avalanches of historic size. These avalanches will be very destructive and may run to the valley bottoms."

That warning is important, because usually, Rocky Mountain avalanches usually largely stop before reaching valley floors, where most people are. So this goes beyond the usual danger avalanches pose to backcountry skiers and hikers most winters.

The danger is particularly acute today after a series of intense storms dumped up to two feet of dense snow atop lighter, more powdery snow. This makes the snow pack very unstable. Strong winds are blowing across Colorado's mountains today, making things all that much worse.

The Denver Post reports that this is the worst winter in decades for avalanche danger in Colorado.

"'We are seeing avalanches run longer than thehy have in 50 years in some cases,' said Spencer Logan, an avalanche forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. 'We've gotten a lot of snow on the mountains and it is starting to come down,'" says the Denver Post.

Another Colorado avalanche this week. Image via
Twitter from Denver 9News 

The Avalanche Center, known as CAIC, says there have been about 2,000 avalanches in Colorado this winter. In an average year, there are about 3,000 avalanches, but most of those occur in the spring when the snow is starting to melt.

That means when the current avalanche warning expires Friday, the risk is far from over. I'm sure there will be plenty more such warnings in Colorado during the coming weeks. Already six people have died in Colorado slides this winter.

Interstate 70 through the Colorado mountains is closed again today. In my earlier post, as you will see below under "Previous Discussion," the highway closed Sunday when avalanches struck vehicles on the road.  Interstate 70 closed again Tuesday while officials intentionally set of avalanches to help prevent larger more destructive ones from launching on their own.

But today, two giant avalanches near Vail and Copper Mountain closed Interstate 70 again today. The avalanche near Copper Mountain ruptured a gas line. The one near Vail hit a truck, but the driver was not injured and a tow truck pulled the vehicle out.

Parts of State Highways 91 and 24 were also closed because of avalanches or worries about them.

Some ski areas, like Breckenridge, closed upper mountains to skiers so that they will stay safe.

Colorado isn't the only place in trouble with avalanches. A snowmobile rider was killed Monday by an avalanche in Wyoming. The National Avalanche Center is showing lesser, but still considerable avalanche risks in parts of Utah, Idaho and California.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION 3/5/19

Several avalanches roared down from the mountains and onto Interstate 70 near Copper Mountain, Colorado in the past week.

At least two hit several cars along the highway, but spoiler alert: Nobody was hurt. Videos are below.

At least one pickup truck was pushed off the road, and several motorists had to crawl out of sunroofs or car windows to escape once the avalanches subsided.  Many of these motorists then had to spend hours digging out their cars to continue on their way.

Although avalanches in the mountains are fairly common, ones that impact highways are not. Colorado highway officials said these were the first avalanches to hit a major Colorado highway since 1983.

The Colorado Rockies have been hit by unusually heavy snowstorms in recent weeks, leading to the increased avalanches.

Colorado isn't the only state dealing with avalanches crashing down onto highways. In Idaho, a snow slide buried a one quarter mile long part of Route 21 between Lowman and Stanley beneath up to 40 feet of snow.  Nobody was hurt there, either.

A couple of dramatic videos from dash cams emerged from the Colorado avalanches. Scary!

Here's the first one:



Here's another, more expansive view from a motorist who avoided getting directly hit:

So Much Snow That Big Good Boy Had To Dig Path For Small Good Boy

The area around Durango, California just received about 80 inches of snow in about a week, with maybe three feet in just three day.

That's a TON of snow by any measure. People had trouble getting around, and so did their best friends.

Case in point is the video below, in which a small good boy has trouble making it back home through the deep drifts. Luckily a bigger good boy was available to clear a path for the stuck little guy.

Here's the sweetness in the snow:

Flash Flooding, Other Storms Continue To Plague Nation

Good Samaritans rescue a 70 year old man from a flooded car in
Rockford, Illinois Monday.

Flash flooding is turning into a big problem in many different parts of the nation this week. Other storms have produced big hail and even a couple New Hampshire tornadoes.

I mentioned the Houghton, Michigan flood the other day. Other hard hit areas include Rockford, Illinois.

Many homes and businesses, including a hospital, were flooded there, and motorist were rescued from stranded cars. Three to five inches of rain fell in Rockford in just a few hours.

Parts of Texas, such as Port Arthur, hit so hard by Hurricane Harvey flooding last year, went under water again.

Snow plows clear heavy accumulations of hail from a highway
in Colorado this week. 

Today, the greatest risk of additional flooding includes coastal Texas and Louisiana, and an area around southeastern South Dakota and Iowa. (I hope the sump pumps are working great in my mother-in-law's house in Yankton, South Dakota!)

Meanwhile, the problem in Colorado was hail, especially in Greeley, Boulder and the Denver suburb of Aurora.

Some of the hailstones were the size of tennis balls, so you can imagine how many cars and roofs were damaged in these heavily populated areas.

Finally, we talked yesterday about those tornado warnings Monday in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  

It turns out two tornadoes were confirmed in New Hampshire. A hiker in the White Mountains took a photo of a weak tornado skipping across the hills and forests around Lincoln, New Hampshire. Another tornado, and EFO with 75 mph winds, took a nine mile path near Bath, New Hampshire.

Here's some videos:

First,  a rescue from a flooded car in Rockford, Illinois:



Here water in Rockford gushes into a hospital:



Here's an intense hail storm in Greeley, Colorado:



In Greeley, hail washed into a low spot in one neighborhood and ended up being two to three feet deep, as this news clip shows:

Alberto Update: Two Journalists Die Covering Storm

Alberto over Alabama Tuesday morning.  

Once-Subtropical Alberta, which moved inland yesterday, is still prompting widespread flood alerts and watches and warnings as it slowly moves north toward the Midwest.

Tragically, two journalists in North Carolina died while covering the storm.  A tree fell on a vehicle as WYFF anchor Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer covered heavy rains and potential flooding.

The danger from Alberto is from flooding, and the area at risk is pretty widespread. The tragedy in North Carolina was one example of this.

As Alberto made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Monday, a wide fetch of tropical moisture associated with the storm flowed into areas as far away as the Carolinas.

That's why McCormick and Smeltzer were covering the storm. Flood watches and flash flood warnings were in effect Monday in the Carolinas.

This morning, flash flood warnings were up for areas of Alabama, including the Tuscaloosa area. Flash flood watches are up today for a wide area of the Southeast, as they were yesterday. Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky are some of the areas under threat from the flooding today.

The remnants of Alberto will make their way up toward Michigan by Thursday and on up into Canada Friday. Heavy downpours are possible along the storm's path, but I don't expect huge, widespread floods.

Tornado over Colorado Tuesday.
Photo by Daniel Shaw, via Twitter
@DanielShawAU

TROUBLE ELSEWHERE

Monday was quite an active severe weather day in much of the country. It was one of the busiest days of the year for tornadoes, with at least 19 reported. Most of them were in Colorado, but there were a few others in Iowa, Kansas and Utah.

Luckily, most of the tornadoes were in open country and caused relatively little damage.

Today, most of the severe weather, including some risk of tornadoes, heads mostly to central and western Kansas and parts of Oklahoma. Minnesota looks like it will have some strong storms today, too.

The always entertaining and expert photojournalist/stormchaser Pecos Hank captured some of the tornadoes in Colorado Monday, including two that were spinning simultaneously:

Northeast Heat Overperforms; Wild Weather Everywhere Today

A busy weather day for much of the nation today. Areas in
yellow have a slight risk of severe storms. Dark green
is a marginal risk. That hot pink area in the middle of
the country is a risk for strong tornadoes today. 

Every once in awhile, you get a day where there's lots of wild weather everywhere.

One of those is today. Including here in Vermont and the rest of the Northeast, though it's not nearly as heart-pounding here as it is in a few other parts of the country.  

First, I owe you a bit of a mea culpa. I said in yesterday's post that record high temperatures would not be broken Wednesday in Vermont, as the peak of the odd early season heat blast would hit today, Thursday instead.

Well, that heat really overperformed on Wednesday. Burlington set a record high of 91 degrees Wednesday, besting the previous record of 90, set in 1977.

Montpelier made it to 87, beating the record of 85 degrees back in 1977. And St. Johnsbury reached 89, edging out the 88 in 1991.

The heat is on today, as you may have noticed with the stuffy night we had last night.

More record highs might be set today, depending on clouds and wind speeds, but a few records probably will fall. The record high today in Burlington is 89 set in 1989, and that mark is definitely in danger.

You'll notice it's windier today than yesterday, so at least there's a breeze. But it's more humid, too, so there's that.

The wind will be especially strong in New York's St. Lawrence Valley, were gusts could reach 50 mph. And that doesn't even include the thunderstorms that might develop later.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has northern New York and the northwest tip of Vermont in the slight risk zone for severe thunderstorms.

A little disturbance ahead of a cold front might create a few isolated severe thunderstorms late this afternoon across the North Country. There won't be a lot of thunderstorms, but they'll be working with hot, gusty air, so a couple of those could get really strong.

Another line of storms ahead of a cold front will probably get into northern New York later this evening. Some of those will be severe, with high winds being the biggest threat. There's also the risk of big hail, and and even a teensy, tiny little chance of a brief tornado spin up, too. Heavy rains could accompany the storms.

This line of storms will likely start to weaken as they get into Vermont, but some might still be severe tonight, especially in western Vermont. So we'll watch that.

Yet another dramatic turnaround in the weather comes Friday, with much, much cooler weather. Highs will only be around 60 to 65 degrees, which is only a tad cooler than normal for this time of year, but it will feel dramatically different compared today.

I mentioned that this busy weather in Vermont is not as extreme as other areas of the country and that's surely true.

You'll probably hear on the news tonight and tomorrow of a very nasty tornado outbreak, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma. Conditions there are ripe today for strong, long lasting tornadoes, so that's certain a big danger. Hope the big tornadoes stay out in open country, and not blast through cities like Topeka, Wichita and Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, in Wyoming and Colorado, a HUGE late season snowstorm was getting underway this morning.  Up to three feet of snow is forecast in the high elevations of Wyoming by Saturday. Areas around Laramie, Wyoming could see 20 inches of snow out of this, which is really something.

In Denver, a few inches of wet snow might accumulate tonight on fully leafed out trees. The weight of that snow would break quite a few branches and power lines.

So far at least, I haven't heard of any forecasts of maurading locusts.

High Winds Causing Problems Across The Nation, Including Vermont

Downed trees smush cars in Colorado Springs Monday.
Strong, possibly damaging winds are forecast in Vermont's
Champlain Valley tonight. Photo here by Ryan Hannigan/
Colorado Springs Independent

One thing I've noticed about the parade of storms that have been marching across the nation from California to New England since late November is the wind.

There have been lots of damaging wind episodes with these strong storms, and that seems to be continuing.

Here in Vermont, we're in for another damaging wind episode in parts of the state later today and tonight. More on that in a minute.

But first, let's take a look at problems elsewhere in the nation that past couple of days.

WINDY WEST

At least one of the deaths associated with the storms in the past few days out on the West Coast was wind related: A tree fell on a woman in California.

And I discussed yesterday that sad story of the giant Sequoia with the tunnel in its trunk that succumbed to the wind in California.

Winds screamed through the peaks of the Sierra Nevada Sunday night at speeds of up to a whopping 173 mph.

The wind spread into Colorado Monday. Downslope winds caused havoc in many Colorado communities, including Colorado Springs, where winds  gusted to 78 mph.

The Colorado Springs Independent said police were telling people not to drive Monday because of debris in the roads, and many traffic signals were twisted around by the wind and/or not functioning.

Many tractor trailer trucks traveling on those areas toppled in the wind.

In Colorado Springs, a large section of roof blew off the Terry R. Harns Judicial Complex, which understandably forced an evacuation of the building and the cancellation of court hearings, said the Colorado Springs Independent. Streets in the area were closed because of flying roof debris.

This was a really serious storm!

It wasn't the worst wind storm in Colorado history, but it was intense. "The magnitude was way up there," Steve Hodanish, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pueblo told the Colorado Springs Gazette.

(Side note: I was a meteorology student with Hodanish at Lyndon State College in Vermont in the early 1980s Great guy. Hi Steve!)

VERMONT WIND WARNING 

Strong, possibly damaging winds will affect parts of Vermont later this afternoon and especially tonight, especially near Lake Champlain.

This storm is very similar to the one on December 26, which caused some damage in the Champlain Valley. Winds were clocked as high as 61 mph in South Hero. However, tonight's wind might be a little more intense than on December 26.

A high wind warning is up for the northern Champlain Valley, including Burlington, St. Albans and the islands. Winds could easily gust to 60 mph or a little above in these areas.

During the December 26 storm, the wind and waves were strong enough to prompt Lake Champlain Transportation to suspend ferry service between Grand Isle, Vermont and Cumberland Head, New York.

I suspect the same might happen later today, so plan accordingly.

The wind is being caused by a strong and strenghtening storm moving northeastward through the Great Lakes. It'll also produce some snow and mixed precipitation in Vermont this afternoon and tonight, but the wind will be the main story

The wind won't be quite as strong in the rest of Vermont as it will be in the Champlain Valley but still, scattered power failures might happen in western Vermont away from the lake as winds gust to 45 to 50 mph tonight.

It looks like the wind will peak in intensity somewhere between 8 p.m. and midnight tonight, then gradually subside.

If I were you in the Champlain Valley, I'd make sure the flashlights have batteries and everything is charged up.

Wednesday will be mild and cloudy as the storm moves off into Canada. Another warm, but weaker storm will come through Thursday with unwelcome rain, but less wind. It'll then briefly turn seasonably cold this weekend.

Tornadoes Menace Plains Again

Jane O'Neill took this photo of a tornado Saturday
in Wray, Colorado.  

Tornado chasers seemingly by the dozens converged on Wray, Colorado Saturday as a photogenic twister touched down there.

I might be exaggerating on the numbers, but judging from the number of videos of the tornado on YouTube, there were quite a few people there.

Television station 9News in Denver reported at least five people injured and several structures damaged in Wray.

Videos taken of the tornado show debris from buildings and farm equipment blowing across highways.

Today, the tornado risk shifts to the traditional tornado alley area of the Great Plains, particularly western and central parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.

More severe weather is likely Monday in and near the Ozarks and mid-Mississippi valley. 

Here's some videos of the Wray tornado:

AccuWeather aired storm chaser Reed Timmer and his team's video of the Wray tornado. He kept driving into the outer circulation of the intensifying tornado, something I sure as hell don't recommend.

Timmer's been chasing tornadoes for years, so he knows what he's doing (I hope!) but amateurs please don't do what you see in this video:



Another video producer, Forever Chasing, stayed a bit more of a distance away, and thus captured the colors and the structure of the tornado and its parent supercell thunderstorm:

Huge Hail, Rain Storm Causes Havoc AGAIN In Colorado

Afttermath of the giant hailstorm and flash flood
Monday on Stoneridge Drive in Colorado Springs.
The video at the bottom of this post shows this street in
full flood mode during the height of the rain and hail 

The area around Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, Colorado got nailed again by immense thunderstorms, severe flash flooding and hail Monday, 

You'll see some videos of the wild flash flood amidst lots of hail and rain on one Colorado Springs street on Monday.

The area around Colorado Springs has had a tough time since 2012  and early in the summer of 2013, when two immense wildfires removed much of the vegetation and trees in the hills across that region.

The Front Range, as the the eastern edge of the Colorado Rockies are known, are prone to strong thunderstorms if the wind blows from the east and other factors conspire to bring moisture and instability to the area.

The east winds are force to rise up the plains of eastern Colorado slope upward the more west you go. Then you hit the mountains, and the east winds are forced to rise even more sharply to get over the mountains.

Often, that results in thunderstorms, often accompanied by a LOT of hail, downpours and the occasional tornado.

With the trees and shrubs and stuff gone from many of the hills near Colorado Springs since 2013, less water soaks into the ground. Plus, the rains can carry fire debris, mud and rocks down the slopes that would have otherwise be held in place by trees, roots and plants.

The result has been numerous flash floods around Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs over the past two years.

It hasn't helped that the summer thunderstorms over the past three summers seem to be more vicious and wet than many in the past.

A new round of storms hit yesterday, forcing airline en route from Boston to Salt Lake City to make an emergency landing in Denver when hail smashed the windshields and nose cone of the plane. Nobody was seriously hurt in that incident. j

It also unleashed a rain and hailstorm on Colorado Springs, that whitened the ground like snow and triggered more incredible flash floods.

Watch this video to get an idea of how it played out:




Here's what it's like to get caught driving in one of these epic Colorado hail and flash flood storms.
The motorist in this video finally pulls over to get out of danger at the end of the video, but I would have pulled over long before he did:



And here's the scene Monday in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Notice it really isn't raining there. All the water came from fairly distant thunderstorms in the mountains above this resort town:

Colorado Hit By Tornadoes, Floods, Hail

A tornado looms over Simia, Colorado on
Thursday. Photo by John Hallen.  

Another day, another round of severe storms.

It's been a slow drip, drip of severe storms and tornadoes this spring and early summer.

So far, there have not really been any mega huge tornado outbreaks, but the pace of tornadoes, while slower than normal, has picked up above the levels of the previous two years.

Colorado was targeted most the past couple of days.

The Denver Post said about 25 homes were damaged or destroyed by a tornado along the border of Boulder and Larimer counties.

Hail washed down hills and piled up a few feet deep in Denver streets. People were seen last night digging their cars out with snow shovels, as if there had been a nasty blizzard.

Hail piled deep in Denver streets, as viewed
from a news helicopter.  

Flooding is a spreading problem, too. We'll get into that after the video that's coming next, which I'll set up now.

I'm a little reluctant to show this video, because you can argue it glorifies tornado chasers getting too close to tornadoes.

In this case, chaser Verne Carlson tried to drive away from a tornado that was drawing too close in Simia, Colorado.

The GPS he was using indicated the road kept going, but it was a dead end, so he could go no further as the tornado chased the chaser.

It ran over him, badly damaging his truck, but luckily Carlson suffered no serious injuries.

Watch:



As I noted, tornadoes aren't the only problem going on. Flooding continues to be a problem in a lot of areas. Now it's spreading out of Texas and Oklahoma, two states that are actually drier this week.

The Denver Post said the tornadic storms dumped eight inches of rain on Lyon, Colorado, sending water coursing through living rooms and blocking roads.

Kansas has had a number of flash warnings, and more flooding is expected there.

Also, a terrible flood hit the city of Lusk, Wyoming, as you can see in this video of scary flood damage.

Colorado Storms Drop A TON Of Hail, Again. With Video

A car stuck in the hail around Denver Monday. Photo
by Steve Nehf, Denver Post.  

Huge hail storms hit in the Denver, Colorado metro area Monday, showing what I've been calling the year of big hail is continuing on into the autumn.   

The hail was as much as four inches deep in the town of Centennial. And this is the third time this month that an epic hail storm, enough to totally cover the ground, has hit the town of Aurora, Colorado.

Today, the severe threat shifts into eastern South Dakota and eastern Nebraska. Again, hail and strong straight line winds are the primary threat there, but there could be a tornado or two.

More severe weather is possible in the Central Plains Wednesday, and in the mid-Mississippi Valley Thursday.

At least the hail threat in Colorado is smaller today. Three videos of the storms below,

Here's what it looked like in Aurora, Colorado on Monday:



Another view of chaos in an Aurora yard:

 

Here's the scene in Centennial, Colorado

Colorado Flood: Poignant Piano Solo After Flood Rips Through Home

Buzzfeed had two videos from the flood zone in Colorado that, when taken together, offer one of the most poignant takes on the huge disaster.

Mark Changaris plays "Mad World" on the piano
in his flood-destroyed Boulder, Colorado home.  

The two videos are in this post. The first video shows water and mud roaring through the home's interior during the height of the flood, basically destroying the structure.

The second video shows one of the people who lived in the house, Mark Changaris, playing a subdued version of "Mad World" by Tears For Fears on the piano amid the wreckage of his living room after the water receded.

"I guess in some sense I was saying goodbye. In another sense, it felt good to play, to just be in the moment and let the rest of the craziness drop off. It also helped make me feel more normal, that in the face of something so outwardly bizarre, something old and familiar could warm up the place," Changaris said, according to NPR.

For maximum effect, hit "Play" on both videos simultaneously. (Turn down the volume on the flood video and turn up the sound on the piano video) You'll get the flood, and the sad piano music accompanying the disaster.

Here are the videos:

Vermont Irene, Colorado Floods Seem Like Carbon Copies Of Each Other

It's no surprise that Vermont officials are in Colorado, helping that state figure out how to dig out of the massive flooding from the past week.

A house devastated by Colorado flooding last week.  

We here in Vermont went through the same thing during Tropical Storm Irene in August, 2011, so unfortunately we know a thing or two about recovering from a massive flood disaster.

Much has been said of the similarities between the two disasters.

Both hit in mountainous areas, and masses of water swept down hillsides, destroying long stretches of roads, washing away homes until the completely disintegrated and leaving a trail of undermined homes and businesses buried in rocks, much and other debris.

I posted two videos to illustrate the similarities. The first, from the Associated Press, takes us into hard hit Rochester, Vermont after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The second is a tour of Glen Haven, Colorado.

A house destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene
flooding in Rochester, Vermont, August, 2011

If anything Glen Haven looks even worse than Rochester, but the videos are startlingly similar.

But, if Colorado needs a glimmer of hope, look at it this way. Rochester, and the rest of Vermont is back, and Colorado will be back, too.

Here are the videos. First, Rochester, Vermont, then Glen Haven, Colorado.