Updated at 11:57 p.m.
Severe thunderstorms tore through Vermont late Thursday — a brief but powerful encore to historic flooding that devastated the state earlier in the week.
Intense wind gusts uprooted trees from saturated soils, knocking down power lines and causing minor structural damage, according to Matthew Clay, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Burlington office.
“Mother nature’s just not happy with us right now,” Clay said.
Roughly 18,000 customers lost power at one point Thursday evening, according to VTOutages, though by 11:30 p.m. that number had dropped to 11,000. The greatest number of outages took place in Rutland, Orange, Windsor and Washington counties.
Despite the wind damage, according to Vermont Emergency Management spokesperson Hillarie Scott, “The storm wasn’t as bad as we expected.”
While parts of the state saw “some pretty impressive rainfall,” Clay said, flash flooding turned out to be relatively minor.
Many of the areas that got the most rain Thursday needed it least. Plymouth, which saw 9.05 inches of rain early this week, saw another 1.25 inches Thursday night, Clay said. Orwell was hit with 2.35 inches over the course of just 90 minutes.
Montpelier, where officials had been warily watching water levels at the nearby Wrightsville Dam, received only ⅓ of an inch of rain Thursday, easing fears that water would spill over and again flood the capital city. Though water levels rose slightly at the dam, Clay said, it appeared to be “in good shape.”
“There’s been no significant changes in the dams after this storm,” Scott said.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, the National Weather Service in Burlington issued 21 severe weather alerts, four flash flood warnings and one tornado warning. “It was a busy day, to say the least,” Clay said.
It was not immediately clear whether a tornado developed in the Benson and Orwell area of Rutland and Addison counties where the warning was targeted, Clay said, though there were many reports of damage.
Forecasters are now looking ahead to Sunday, when the state could again see significant rainfall. But for the time being, Clay said, “I think in a lot of ways we got away unscathed.”