Climate Anomalies and Extreme Weather Events

From day to day, season to season and year to year, Vermont's weather is known for its variety, its climate for its changeability. "Normal" months, seasons or years tend to be uncommon. Extreme weather events can take the form of prolonged droughts, extreme flooding related to severe summer thunderstorms, as well as equally severe winter blizzards and ice storms. Such events leave their imprints on the human populations and visible scars on the landscape. Catastrophic statewide events such as the flooding in June 1998, the ice storm of January 1998 and the flooding in Montgomery in July 1997, can be compared with events of similar magnitudes in the historical record. For example, the flood of 1927 produced significant damage in Montpelier, the state capital. Two years later an ice storm of comparable spatial extent and damage potential as that of January 1998, swept across western New York, Vermont and into Maine. For more details on recent extreme events, follow the links below.

• NWS Burlington - severe weather events across northern Vermont and New York
• NWS Albany - severe weather events (synoptic perspective)
• NWS Burlington - 2008 - 10th Anniversary of Ice Storm of 1998
• Eastern U.S. flooding and ice storm - January 1998
• Tornadoes touch down near Bennington - May 1998
• Floods hit New York, Vermont, Ohio, Wisconsin; 4 dead
• 1998 - A record year in Vermont
• Vermont picks up the muddy pieces
• Flooding in Vermont in 1998

Last modified May 27 2010 07:30 PM