Flash Flood — Franklin, Vermont

2019-11-01 · near East Sheldon, Franklin, Vermont

Event narrative

Numerous roads flooded with full and partial road washouts and swift water rescues in Montgomery, Enosburg Falls and Richford vicinity. Additional flooding later in te day as a result of river flooding from the Missisquoi river.

Flash flooding transitioned to areal flooding in and outside of the initial flash flooding area including the Missisquoi river and its tributaries.

Wider weather episode

A developing area of low pressure moved from the Gulf of Mexico on during the night of the 30th and moved north into the eastern Great Lakes as it intensified during the evening of October 31st. As the surface low moved across Ontario during the night of October 31st, its associated cold front slowly edged across Vermont during the early morning hours of November 1st.

The upper level pattern was very strong and dynamic with a direct moisture feed from the Gulf of Mexico, thus delivering copious amounts of moisture into the northeast and NY.

Steady rain developed during the mid to late evening of October 31st and became heavy at times through the early morning hours of November 1st. Rainfall amounts 1.5 to 2 inches were common across much of Vermont with a swath of 2 1/2 to 4 inches across northwest and north central Vermont.

Numerous flooded streams, flooded and several washed out roads were reported in northern Vermont beginning just after midnight on November 1st and several larger rivers flooded as well, including the Lamoille, Missisquoi basins and portions of the Winooski and Mad River basins. Urban street flooding occurred in the Burlington area just after 10 pm on October 31st.

In addition, strong southwest to west winds, gusting to 40 to 50 mph and locally higher, developed around sunrise and continued through mid-afternoon before quickly diminishing by evening. These persistent strong winds combined with over-saturated soils, led to numerous downed trees, structural damage and escalated power outages to their peak of more than 100,000 outages. Estimated public infrastructure damage in excess of $5 million.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.8857, -72.8424)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 860729. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.