Vermont Thunderstorms Rumbled, But At Least There Are No Las Vegas Style Grasshoppers.

This "profile" in the sky looks like it's surprised bu something off
to the west. This is a thunderhead that passed north of
St. Albans, Vermont Sunday evening. 

Sunday's storms worked out just as expected - hitting most of us with a couple quick dashes of downpours, with only a handful of places getting nailed.

From what I could tell, there was a severe thunderstorm in Stowe around 3:30 p.m., based on reports of trees down there and an impressive radar return at that hour.

There was a report of some tree damage on Colchester Avenue in Burlington a little earlier in the afternoon.  For most of the rest of us, no biggie.

Except for some places that really got bullseyed by storms, the rainfall was inadequate, too. It was still fairly dry under the trees around my house in St. Albans, Vermont, despite two or three brief downpours.

And it was frustrating to see one thunderstorm after another go by a few miles north of my house on Sunday while most of them seemed to avoid me. Oh well.

There are chances of showers and storms Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday because of a slow moving cold front.  Similar to Sunday, most storms won't be severe, but there might be a couple strong ones mostly over New York Tuesday and mostly east of the Champlain Valley Wednesday, as forecasts look now. The timing and location of these storms could change as forecasts get updated, but that's the way it looks now.

As luck would have it, the timing of the front means they'd fire up pretty well over New York State Tuesday afternoon, wane before getting to my place in northwestern Vermont, then fire up just to my east on Wednesday. I can't catch a break.

At least I didn't have to contend with dense clouds of grasshoppers, like Las Vegas is experiencing

LAS VEGAS "LOCUST" PLAGUE



Grasshoppers swarming in Las Vegas. Photo via television station KSNV.

OK, they're not really locusts, but grasshoppers. But still, things always seem unique in Las Vegas.

National Weather Service offices all over the nation routinely release special weather statements on local weather hazards. The NWS office in South Burlington put out several such statements on Sunday regarding the thunderstorms, for instance.

But this statement the other day from the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas is a new one:

"Outflow winds from earlier storms over Nye County have just entered NW Las Vegas. Wind gusts betweeen 30-40 mph will be likely as these winds move through the valley. Watch for areas of blowing dust and grasshoppers which may limit visibility."

Catch that? Be careful driving through that area of wind because blowing grasshoppers might interfere with visibility.

And you think you had problems?

Grasshoppers normally make an appearance in Las Vegas this time of year as they migrate northward toward the central part of Nevada. But there's an extraordinary number of them this year, due to a wet and cool spring in that region.  (Well, wet and cool by Las Vegas standards, anyway.)

They're attracted to light, so they swarm around street lights and all those bright lights of Las Vegas. They're kind of gross looking in such large numbers. But on the bright side, they don't bite or carry diseases.

Here's a CBS News video of the grasshopper invasion