Our snow is all gone and we're getting the promised rain.   The temperature has warmed up to about 45 degrees, and if the rain tonight is as heavy as forecast, it could do some serious damage to the ice.  We took a picture of the block from a slightly different angle today at about noon.  Not that we can tell much from that - just that it's tipped precariously and it looks like it could fall over any moment.

We had an e-mail from a friend in Middlebury who is watching the

web cams and alerted us the block seemed to be slipping out of the camera's view.  It turned out that the wind had moved the camera and all Diane had to do was readjust the camera, so now we can see it very well again - and nothing has changed.  Click on the image to see it larger - to save time and space, I put both camera views into one image - but it should work ok if you click on it.  As you can see, these photos were taken a little before 5 o'clock.

The rain has stopped for the moment, but the wind is picking up, so it could be a bit of a wild night.  With all the water already in the ground, trees could topple and lights could go out.  

I came across a newspaper clipping from Danville's newspaper, the North Star, dated Tuesday, April 7, 1807.  It was about a snow storm the previous week that left people with snow "five feet deep on a level," that covered fences and blocked roads making them impassible with horses or sleighs.  The only travel was by snowshoe.  Mail carriers didn't even attempt to travel, so mail was not delivered for several days.  In a later April article, it was reported that the flooding of the Connecticut River was the cause of there being no mail delivery, again that April.  There was no travel possible on the dangerously swollen river, an important method of transportation at that time, and it was reported that "Well's River bridge is swept away by the freshet, and all the others over Connecticut River between this place and Hanover are so impaired that there is no crossing them."  Thus, no mail was delivered to the Danville area for many days.

The following year, in July, the North Star reported torrents of rain, tornadoes, hail and lightning, apparently for over a period of ten days.  Eight or ten barns in the Danville area were leveled, and homes lost their roofs or were otherwise damaged.  Hail broke windows and damaged crops.  Hailstones in Waterford were measured to be seven inches in diameter.  

That was serious weather!  Let's hope we don't have a spring or summer like that coming at us!