Worst natural disaster ever in Vermont; all-time record heat persists in Texas

The flooding from Hurricane Irene's remnants in Vermont was the worst since 1927. As much as 11 inches of rain fell on the Green Mountain State, where my wife Sharon and I lived from 1995 to 2003.

The state began mobilizing National Guard helicopters on Tuesday to airlift food, water and other supplies to scores of small towns entirely cut off due to road closures.

Approximately 260 roads were washed out in Vermont along with 30 highway bridges, including several historic covered-bridges that Sharon and I will sorely miss. One 19th Century grist mill that we visited in Newfane, Vt., was "smashed into kindling." On Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders called the flooding "Vermont's worst natural disaster in its 400-year history."

At least three people died in Vermont and another 40 persons lost their lives elsewhere, as Irene slowly churned northward up the East Coast during the last weekend of August.

Normally placid creeks and streams in Vermont and neighboring eastern New York State were turned into roaring brown 'torrents of destruction' that smashed hundreds of buildings, ripping many homes completely off their foundations. The Catskills and Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York were likewise besieged by raging floodwaters.

Fortunately, our former home in Jericho, Vt., east of Burlington, the state's biggest city, only suffered minor basement flooding. In 1999, we also had some minor flooding from 7.38 inches of rain in 18 hours in Jericho from Hurricane Floyd.

I'm certainly glad to be living in rather 'safe and sound' Coeur d'Alene. As I've said frequently, this is CAMELOT!

Looking at another weather story tied-in with our raging cycle of WIDE EXTREMES on a global scale, the worst such period since at least the days of Leif Ericsson, the great Norse Chieftain, around 1,000 A.D., we see that the U.S. Southern Great Plains from Kansas southward to the Texas Gulf Coast has just come through its hottest and driest July through August, 62-day period in recorded history. Dozens of fires are "out of control" in Oklahoma and Texas.

Crops have been literally "wiped-out" by the deadly combination of extreme heat and drought. As expected, agricultural commodity prices of corn, wheat, cotton, soybeans and other crops hit all-time high levels in Chicago and elsewhere.

We are hoping and praying that our very active 2011 hurricane season will eventually, sometime later this month into early October, bring drought-parched Texas and other areas of the Deep South, south of I-70, some much-needed rains.

One of my clients in Texas south of Dallas told me on Wednesday, "Cliff, I've had 66 days in a row with triple-digit temperatures with only a few light showers during the entire period since last March. We will take any moisture that we can get, even from a destructive hurricane."

The heat and drought pattern has actually worsened in the past week to 10 days as of this Thursday, Sept. 1, writing.

On Saturday, Aug. 27, Houston, Texas, soared to a sweltering 109 degrees, tying its all-time record originally set back in July of 1980.

The next afternoon, Sunday, Aug. 28, saw the mercury hit an all-time high of 112 degrees at Austin, Texas, and 110 degrees at San Antonio, also a new all-time record high.

At least 60 percent of the wells, reservoirs and aquifers in Texas have gone dry this blistering summer of 2011. Many farmers and ranchers are going bankrupt. One of our rancher clients sold all of his cattle last week, because he "totally ran out of feed and water."

As previously stated, we do see some increasing moisture in the weeks ahead along the Texas/Louisiana coastline. There is at least a 70 percent chance that a drought-busting tropical storm or hurricane will arrive soon from the Gulf of Mexico.

The situation is DESPERATE in the Southland to say the least. Keep these folks in your daily prayers. "Only God can save us know," said a worried Texas rancher.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

Wednesday evening's thunderstorm produced .31 inches of badly-needed rain at my station on Player Drive in Coeur d'Alene, ending more than five full weeks locally with no precipitation - 36 days to be exact - since a puny .04 inches fell on July 25.

The 36 days in a row without measurable precipitation, which came directly on the soggy heels of the third wettest and the third coolest spring season on record since at least 1895, was the fourth longest dry spell in Coeur d'Alene on record.

The longest period on record between measurable rainfalls locally occurred almost a century ago in 1917, when Coeur d'Alene went 67 days without any moisture between June 29 and Sept. 3. Fires broke out in the region several times during the unusually hot and dry summer.

In 1967, 50 years later, during the hottest summer in recorded history in Coeur d'Alene, there was no measurable rainfall for 58 days between July 9 and Sept. 5. In the year 2000, we saw the third most prolonged dry spell in recorded history in town - 49 days - between July 7 and Aug. 25.

As far as the rest of August's weather statistics are concerned, we saw the hottest afternoon of the entire summer on Aug. 28, 97 degrees, on the final day of this year's North Idaho Fair and Rodeo. Yes, it was hot, but at least the Fair was totally rainless, no mud at all!

The month's lowest reading was 46 degrees on Aug. 20. August was the first month with above normal temperatures since last September, nearly two degrees warmer than usual.

In the near-term, high pressure will bring warm and sunny weather for the Labor Day weekend and beyond. September and early October still look both warmer and drier than usual across the Inland Empire. Enjoy ...

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com