This Is Not My Summer

Radar last night before all hell broke loose.

It's not been a summer that I am used to. Fires in Quebec kept me indoors for two weeks because of smoke. I checked our AQI nearly every hour during those days. At one point, my Andrew had the dirtiest air in the world in Washington, DC. On another day, it was Anna living in the dirtiest air in New Haven. I kept seeing these alerts on my phone.

A smokey sunset in June.

Then there was heat. Up to 90°F (32°C); extremely difficult for Vermonters to deal with.  

Then the smoke came back; it was not as bad, though, but I did finally get an air conditioner because of it. You can't live in a house closed off from smoke in heat like that without air circulating.

Finally, the rain. It started on Sunday night and continued until Wednesday. You may have heard about the floods in Vermont. Everything closed up on Sunday night because of the forecasts. Our capitol city, Montpelier, an hour south of me, is still under water. 

The worst that happened here was the Barton River, an ancient ox-bow river that quickly floods roads. For two days Amy and I were cut off from everything because Route 5 was flooded from Barton Village to Orleans Village, about 8 miles. There has been no traffic by my house because nobody is out. Business and schools were closed all week.

Rain clouds across from Amy's house in Orleans.

The flood times can be scary for me. I am on the side of Barton Mountain with at least 3 brooks on my property draining into a state mapped wetlands across the road. I am nowhere close to the river. Usually all things are in balance. But in 2011, during the devastating rain of Tropical Storm Irene, my brooks flooded my road. The flash flood took out my driveway. I was anticipating a repeat of those bad days, but it did not happen. I did get some washout of the driveway, but it isn't bad. The worst part of the week was being cooped inside. And last night.

A bit of a washed out driveway.

Yesterday, the entire state watched for incoming thunderstorms from New York that could trigger more devastating floods. The governor even told us to stay home from 4PM to 8PM. And we all did. The storms got to my house around 8PM and they were bad. Lightning struck on the mountain and across the road. The noise was painful and scary. But no fires started from the strikes and the wind did not bring down trees here. The first photo of this post was of radar five minutes before the storm hit.

00:26

Amy caught video of the storm at her house.

She watched the wrong direction, though.

I got out of the house so infrequently this past month, because of heat and smoke, that two swallowtail caterpillars that Jody was saving for me (a male and a female) eclosed without me.  😢  I am really looking forward to a normal life now.

Jody's swallowtails

Lucy and I finally got outside today. It is a perfect summer day, 75°F, sunny, and low humidity. This is what we are used to in summer. It was a long wait for a day like today. We only were able to photograph one bug and one Cessna flying overhead violating my airspace. Today, I'm going to make a skillet cookie and pizza. I should have no power outages—I lost power six times this past week. I hope the worst is over.

Tarnished Plant Bug (Lygus lineolaris)

The plane.

Here is an interesting article from the Washington Post on Vermont's rain.  

The exceedingly low odds of Vermont’s flooding disaster, visualized

By John Muyskens, Scott Dance and Simon Ducroquet. There may be a paywall for you if you read the Post often.

I found this Tik Tok video of the Barton River. My thanks to Cheryl Garcia for making it. I can tell exactly where the shot was taken on High Bridge Hill.

@cherylgarcia76 Rte 5, north of Barton, VT. #vermont #flooding ♬ original sound - Cheryl Garcia

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Mallards on Crystal Lake Outlet

The annual church meeting was on January 30 this year, so I stayed late from church and wandered about outside with my camera until the meeting started. The church abuts the Crystal Lake outlet, just about where it flows into the Barton River. The water was clear of ice and there was a healthy flock of mallards swimming about and yakking to each other. It was nice to see them in the middle of winter.

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An October Flood

The Barton River at the white funeral home on Elm Street in Barton Village.
The electric fence is for the horses that usually pasture here by the river.

We had a tremendous amount of rain on September 30 and October 1. The Barton River flooded over its entire length. I was able to go out on the afternoon of October 1 and photograph the flood as it started to recede. Earlier in the day, roads had been closed because they were covered in water. I did not capture that, but even receding, the water was impressive.

The Barton River flows through the village as it travels north to Lake Memphremagog. It is an old river on a flat flood plain and has many deep oxbows. In some places it looks like a muddy ditch and in other places it is quite dramatic, such as at Highbridge Hill where it flows under the railroad (which I haven’t yet been able to capture).In Coventry, the Barton River Marsh is a natural national landmark.. In 1810 Glover, people tried to change the flow of the Barton River, causing the huge Runaway Pond flood. The river is a popular canoeing trail in the summer.

Elm Street on the bridge looking south.

Elm Street

Route 5 north of the village.

A harvested corn field on Route 5.

Storm clouds are still visible in the north.

Route 5

The B&W Snack Bar, closed for the season, had been totally surrounded by water earlier in the day.

View from the B&W picnic area.

A logging operation on Route 5.

Because of the heavy snows this winter, we are anticipating more flooding this coming spring.

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Barton River Marsh

While out birding in Coventry and Coventry Station, we found this area marked with a plaque: the Barton River Marsh, designated a Natural National Landmark by the United States Park Service. See also here.

Barton River Marsh
has been designed a
Registered Natural Landmark

This site possesses exceptional value as an illustration of the nation's natural heritage and contributes to a better understanding of man's environment.

1973
National Park Service
United States Department of the Interior

Technorati tags: Barton+River+Marsh Natural+National+Landmark Coventry+Station Vermont

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