This 'N That And Storm Videos Too

After a nice day, storm clouds gather late in the afternoon Friday
over Georgia, Vermont. They produced wind gusts to about'
 40 mph and brief downpours. 

Last evening in Vermont proved that even once you get rid of the humidity, storminess can still reign.

It was certainly gorgeous in the Green Mountain State Friday, with that lower humidity and sunshine. But, a serious of little cold fronts continued to slide through, and one was timed perfectly in the late afternoon and early evening to produce some gusty showers and thunderstorms.

Winds aloft were pretty strong for this time of year, so the storms were able to pull some of that wind to the surface. There was nothing severe, but gusts of 40 mph and brief heavy downpours, like what I saw in Georgia and other Vermonters saw, are nothing to sneeze at.

Today will be showery, too, even with the sun mixing in. In the mid and upper atmosphere, some of the coldest air in North America is over or near us. With the air temperature rapidly dropping with height, updrafts are easy to create. These form billowing clouds and showers. There won't be anything extreme. And Sunday is looking nice: Sunny and warmish (70s) with low humidity.

Elsewhere, obviously, the weather is worse.

In places like Washington State and parts of the northern Rockies, they are simultaneously under wildfire alerts and flash flood watches. That sounds a little strange but can happen from time to time.

Thunderstorms are expected to move through that area later today and tonight, and some of them will be strong. Like most outbreaks of thunderstorms, this one will be rather hit and miss. Near the edges of the thunderstorms, lightning will hit dry vegetation and set fires, while erratic winds from the storms spread the blazes.

In the core of the thunderstorms, gushing downpours will develop, causing quickly rising water and debris flows, especially in areas denuded by previous forest fires. Today's not a great day to be hiking in the northern Rockies or Pacific Northwest, that's for sure!

In Europe, it's awfully stormy. The United Kingdom's Met Office is alerting people to the flash flooding and high winds expected today. Yesterday, a tornado him Amsterdam, the Netherlands and an even bigger twister hit Luxembourg, of all places. The Luxembourg tornado injured at least seven people and damaged at least 100 houses.

Here's a video, most of it in slo-mo, of the tornado in Luxembourg:



Meanwhile, near London, the Luton Airport, a smaller cousin to the more famous Heathrow, had its own trouble as torrential downpours broke through the roof. Watch:



In eastern China, a typhoon made landfall on Friday. In this Chinese government video, a landslide caused by the typhoon's heavy rains abruptly blocks an expressway tunnel:



Finally, a tornado/waterspout breezes through a waterfront area of Amsterdam the Netherlands: