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This is not the kind of weather we like or need here in the hills of Vermont! All that snow we had accumulated during the last three weekend storms has been effectively washed away. It's hard to imagine what a drastic change - my back lawn is completely free of snow.  It has rained steadily all day and is still coming down. I expect it will turn to snow during the night - and will probably be wet and heavy, just like the past weekends have been except this storm is hitting us a day late. I was just outside trimming back some leftover flower stocks, and it was raining pretty hard and the temperature has dropped from a high of 58F to 45F and the wind is down from about 22 to 5 mph. Still strong enough gusts to cause problems with the ground so wet.

Our power has been off most of the day. I think we got it back a little after 2 o'clock - and it went out shortly after 7 this morning. For a while we still had television, phone and internet, but then that went out as well. My cell phone works in certain places in the house without wifi, but not everywhere.

There are road closures on Route 2 in Marshfield and other roads Lyndon, St. Johnsbury, Waterbury, Middlesex and Barre have closures due to water over the road. Hardwick is opening a shelter tonight because of flooding and loss of electricity. There are still a lot of people without power and some may not be able to make it home tonight because roads are closed. I haven't heard how Cabot is doing in this storm - hopefully they will be ok, and the rain is supposed to let up overnight and change to snow, which will help. We aren't expecting more than three or four inches, but it may still be enough to cause more trouble bending and toppling trees.

You are probably wondering why I was outside cutting back flower stems in this miserable weather. Not because I wanted to be out there working in finger-numbing cold, but because I don't want to spend another night with the security light on the porch going off every few minutes. The wind was howling out of the southeast last night and I think the tall flowers I didn't bother to cut back in the fall were waving frantically and kept setting off the light. If it still happens tonight, it will be because of the rain. There were some large drops of water coming off the roof in the wind and I suppose that could be the culprit. I was up a couple of times last night to investigate, thinking it might be a skunk prowling around. They don't seem to mind the weather and often roam about on warmish nights. It was in the high 30's all night, I think. But with no sign of an animal, I believe it was those weed stocks swaying that set it off. We'll see. It would be hard to take down, but I may have to cover it in order to not be awakened at night.

I hope everyone stays safe and  that there isn't a lot of damage. I don't envy the emergency crews - it will no doubt be a busy night for them.