Wide Ranging Storm Is Cuttng Power From Plains To Northeast

Tornado in Burnsville, Misssissippi Saturday

As expected, it's incredibly windy in some parts of the nation due to an intense storm in the Great Lakes this Sunday morning. Where it isn't windy in the Northeast, it will soon get that way.

Given the huge area this storm is affecting, I'm actually wondering if this will be a billion dollar storm, one that causes at least $1 billion in damage. That amount of damage is a hallmark of a bad storm, for sure.

If this happens, it won't be because there's particularly intense damage in one region. There is pockets of extensive damage in the Mid-South, where flooding has forced a number of people from their houses.

Many roads are still closed, and not every river has crested yet. A landslide in Chattanooga, Tennessee flattened a Subway restaurant, but nobody was hurt. Another Tennessee landslide earlier this week killed a person.

There is also spots with serious damage in the Deep South from Saturday's tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. Mississippi was hit especially hard. Unfortunately, we've had our first tornado death of the year.  A woman in hard-hit  Columbus, Mississippi died when a roof of the building she was in collapsed during the tornado.

Only ten tornado deaths were recorded in the United States during 2018, the lowest number on record. I'm obviously hoping the Mississippi death Saturday is not the beginning of a trend reversal. The peak of the tornado season, after all, doesn't hit until the period April through June.

The threat of more tornadoes with this storm is over. However, there's a huge area of real estate that will have relatively light wind damage - trees and power lines down, some trees down on houses, a few barns unroofed, shingles and siding off homes and businesses - that kind of thing.

I don't remember the last time I've seen such a vast area covered by high wind warnings. The warnings this morning stretched from Wisconsin to New England and south as far as North Carolina.

Most of this area is of course heavily populated. When you add up all the scattered wind damage, that will be a lot of insurance claims.

The power failures will be extensive, too, considering the millions of people who live in the high wind zone. It will be interesting to see by tonight and Monday morning just how many people lose electricity.

VERMONT IMPACTS

Gas station in Illinois damaged by high winds
this weekend. Those strong winds
are heading east, and will affect
the Midwest and Northeast through
Monday 

As expected, there was, and is, mixed precipitation all around the state. It hasn't been particularly heavy, but was certainly enough to screw up the roads. My St. Albans, Vermont driveway, for instance, was a sheet of ice this morning.
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The salt shakers are out, and temperatures were rising above freezing by mid-morning in many areas. By this afternoon, most if not all of Vermont will be above freezing, with scattered light rain showers.

The big story with this storm in Vermont continues to be the wind. There hasn't been many gusts yet but that will change soon.

The first wave of wind won't be the most widespread. While most of the state will be pretty gusty this afternoon, the real blustery zone will be along the western slopes of the Green Mountains as winds come from the southeast.

Gusts along the western slopes will be as high as 55 mph in some spots, enough for a few power failures here and there.

The big storm's cold front will come through this evening, probably with a band of showers. There's even a slight chance of a rumble of thunder with that line of showers. After the front goes by, winds regionwide will really ramp up overnight and continue Monday.  Most of us will have gusts near 50 mph. 

Gusts will approach or even exceed 60 mph in the Adironacks of New York, perhaps the open areas near Lake Champlain in Vermont, and in some of the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains.

As temperatures fall, snow showers will break out and continue into Monday. Accumulations will be minor, with a dusting to as much as three inches in the valleys and two to six inches in the mountains. But with all this wind, even that little bit of snow will blow around an awful lot, making for occasional local white outs on the roads.

Winds will finally die down by Tuesday, but it will be awfully cold for late February, with highs Tuesday and Wednesday 5 to 15 above and lows at least a little below zero.

It's kind of beginning to look like another rinse and repeat of this kind of storm next weekend, but I don't think the winds will be as strong as the one we're contending with today and tomorrow.