‘Chaotic’ Skies, Storm,
Rip through Region
By Sandy Vondrasek

Longtime weather enthusiast Dr. Bill Minsinger has an exceptional view of the sky from his Ridge Road home in Randolph Center, and on Tuesday night, he saw some "spectacular" clouds.

"The sky yesterday was truly a chaotic sky," said Minsinger of his view Tuesday evening, before the rain began and darkness descended to obscure the sky.

Hallmarks of that chaotic sky, according to Minsinger, included "very high thunderheads—they were rather spectacular—and lot of wind shift, with clouds going in different directions."

The extended and extensive lightning that followed the cloud show was a product of the atmospheric chaos, he said.

"You don’t usually see that kind of sky in Vermont," Minsinger added. "It’s more of a Midwest thing than a Vermont thing."

Not far from the Minsinger home, Ted Hoppe, manager of Randolph’s southbound rest area on I-89, was also watching "the worst storm I’ve ever experienced," in the 30 years he’s lived in Vermont.

The rest area took some lighting hits. Hoppe said a 45-foot-high pine was damaged by a strike that sent wood shards to the parking lot 50 feet away. A new picnic table was split in two, numerous fuses in the building were "fried," and a truck driver happened to be using the pay phone at the wrong moment, gave a yell, dropped and phone and retreated inside, after he got a shock.

Statewide, Tuesday’s storms created a lot of havoc, starting with a first wave late afternoon that blasted through the northern part of the state, bringing down trees and power lines. Smaller storms scudded through elsewhere in the state, as well.

For a few windy minutes Tuesday afternoon, Randolph Village had something of a dust storm, as powerful winds in advance of a downpour lifted sand from roads and parking lots.

The second wave of storms hammered especially central and southern parts of the state.

CVPS reported that a total of 22,000 customers lost power in Tuesday’s storms.

Kay Jorgensen of Monarch Hill Road in Tunbridge reported yesterday that her neighborhood—hit hard by storms twice in three days—was still without power at 2 p.m. The Jorgensens and others were also in the dark Sunday night, when an earlier storm ripped through the area, with particularly high winds in Randolph Center, East Randolph and Tunbridge.

Jorgensen said her wind gauge clocked 52-mph winds on Sunday night, and a slightly higher 57 mph Tuesday.

According to a release from CVPS, crews restored power to about 6300 customers Tuesday afternoon, only to have more outages occur elsewhere that evening,

CVPS spokeswoman Christine Rivers said Franklin, Caledonia and Addison counties were hit hardest in the first wave, while Rutland, Orange and Windsor counties took the brunt during the second.

Wind and tree damage broke several poles across the state, and took down dozens of transmission and distribution lines.