Still Kinda Gusty As Crews Work To Restore Power

White pine trees held up particularly poorly in
this week's windstorm. This one bit the
dust in Milton, Vermont.

As of early this morning, close to 39,000 Vermont homes and businesses were still without power in the wake of that tremendous wind storm we had Sunday  night and Monday morning.

The winds remained gusty overnight and as crews restored power to some areas, new outages were reported.

Here at my house in St. Albans, Vermont, the power was out for seven hours Monday morning, then returned. But it went out again for an hour or two last night. Now, knock on wood, it's back on.

Some people probably won't get their power back until the weekend, we're told. On the very bright side, there are so far no reports of deaths or serious injuries in Vermont because of what was a truly dangerous storm.

There's a couple things making this situation worse than it would otherwise be. These windstorms usually tend to focus on one section of the state, which means power companies can focus all their crews and attention there. But this storm caused big problems state wide. 

On top of that, most states have a mutual aid agreement. If a particular state has an especially bad storm, crews from neighboring states come in to help. Not this time. That's because all the surrounding states had their own big time problems and had no crews to spare.

New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts has massive power failures and damage from the storm. In Maine, the power outages with this storm were worse than the legendary ice storm of 1998, which until now had been that state's benchmark for worst case scenario.

Those surrounding areas were also contending with flooding, and coastal damage. Boats broke loose and in some cases sank in Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut because of the storm.
Massachusetts and especially New Hampshire endured serious flooding.

There was still a flash flood watch in one section of northern New Hampshire this morning because there were questions about the structural integrity of a dam along the Androscoggin River. The Saco River went on a rampage Monday through Bartlett and Jackson, New Hampshire. There's a video at the bottom of this post of a house being carried away by a river in Warren, New Hampshire.

Some damage in Vermont is particularly bad. Seven Days says the Audubon Nature Center in Huntington, Vermont is close indefinitely because a falling tree smashed through their office and all the trails are impassable because of fallen branches and trees.

This is a particularly windy time of year, so more setbacks could yet come as a variety of weather systems and cold fronts come through.

Though the expected winds will not be nearly as strong as they were Monday morning, they could drop already weakened trees and power lines. Gusts to 30 mph or more are expected Thursday night and Friday, and we there's a risk of even stronger winds next Monday, perhaps in the 40 mph range.

We'll keep an eye on that for you.

 

First The Incredible Winds, Now A Snowstorm

A giant tree fell on this car in Spokane, Washington
during this week's wind storm. The woman inside
was miraculously not badly hurt. Photo by Ryan
Simm of KREM-TV. 

The northwestern United States, basically a broad stripe from Washington State to the Dakotas, is cleaning up from a massive wind storm earlier this week.

And now a snowstorm is developing across the middle of the country.

The wind storm was the main show.

At least four people were killed by falling trees and a million residents lost power, says the Weather Channel. (Note: Obnoxious auto play in link.)

Spokane, Washington had its  strongest non thunderstorm wind gust on record  at 71 mph. Things got so bad there amid the gusts and the blowing dust that the Greater Spokane Department of Emergency Management told everyone to stay inside during the storm, stay away from windows and don't call 911 unless there was a life-threatening emergency, according to television station KREM.

White Pass, Washington, in the Cascade Mountains, reported a gust of 119 mph. Gusts to 109 mph were reported near Boulder, Colorado.  Strong winds brought trees down onto houses in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

The strong winds, some of the worst the Northwest has seen in many years, were caused by screamingly extra strong jet stream winds over the region. The winds came from the west, hit the coast of Washington, then went east to southeast over the Rockies.

This kind of orientation can sometimes mix these strong upper level winds down to the surface, especially near mountains, notes Dr. Jeff Masters in his Weather Underground blog.

Next up, a snowstorm. A winter storm warning is up for southeastern South Dakota (hi, relatives in Yankton, South Dakota! Expect a good seven inches of snow or so today!)

The winter storm warning for 6 to 12 inches of snow extends across most of Iowa and through northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Winter storm watches are up for much of the lower penisula of Michigan.

The snowstorm is being generated by a storm heading east across the middle of the country. The moisture supply for the storm is only moderate, but it's a vigorous system, so it's able to take full advantage of whatever wetness is in the air to generate snow. And it's cold enough along the winter storm warning path to allow snow, and not rain.

In fact, after the snow passes by, some areas of the upper Midwest could find nighttime temperatures in the upper single numbers at night over the weekend.

After that, we expect the first major Arctic outbreak of the winter over the middle of the country. Temperatures across the Northern Plains will probably fall well below zero, but that's actually not unusual for late November and early December.

It's been so warm, it will just see odd.

Winter appears to be finally here.