For some homeowners, landscapers, and municipal crews in Vermont, Wednesday was a day for cleanup — after powerful thunderstorms roared through Tuesday evening.
Several massive trees were uprooted on Sunset Cliff Road near Lake Champlain in Burlington. A short drive away, in Ethan Allen Park, a smaller tree and limbs fell on a recreation path. At Benko Kukobat’s place on Cayuga Court in the city’s New North End, a neighbor’s tree came crashing down right across his driveway.
“I’m lucky, I tell you,” Kukobat said of how the tree missed his car.
While Tuesday’s thunderstorms won’t go down as any sort of record-breakers here, the scattered damage their powerful winds left behind should serve as a reminder, the National Weather Service said, to heed the warnings the service issues — which are shared on NECN & NBC10 Boston.
“We like our catch phrase: ‘When thunder roars, go indoors,” NWS meteorologist Jessica Neiles said.
Neiles said when it can be done safely, property owners who share photos or storm reports with the National Weather Service are contributing to the public’s understanding of how weather impacts their communities.
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“Any ground truth we can get to understand what’s happening in these storms helps us to issue better warnings in the future,” Nieles said of storm reports and photos and video of storm damage.
Tuesday’s storm even shut down the big rides at the Champlain Valley Fair for the evening, with fairgoers told to seek shelter as the wind and rain headed in.
“Safety is paramount,” emphasized Jeff Bartley, adding that the fair is eager to put the storm in the rearview, as the largest annual event in Vermont looks forward to its second and final weekend. “The forecast is looking great!”
Click here for the latest weather information from the First Alert Weather team.
