Vermont Adds Weather Hub to Catch Storms Before They Hit

The University of Vermont has just finished building a new weather‑monitoring tower in Lyndonville, the first of about twenty planned across the state. The goal is to fill blind spots in the national radar system and give local officials more time to warn people about floods or blizzards. Because Vermont’s mountains can block radar beams, many small storms go unseen until it is too late. The new tower sits east of the Green Mountains, an area that has struggled to get clear radar data. In a recent storm near St. Johnsbury, the main radar only captured part of the event; if it had missed that area entirely, residents might have been caught off guard. The tower is 10 metres tall and measures standard weather data such as rainfall, but it also records soil moisture. Knowing how wet the ground is can improve predictions of flash floods, especially in rural towns that saw damage last year. More detailed information will also help planners decide where to focus long‑term flood‑control projects and how to restore floodplains.Emergency managers say that even a few extra hours of warning can save property and lives. State agencies, including the Dam Safety Program and transportation authorities, will use the data to manage water levels and road conditions. Farmers can also benefit by timing planting or harvests more accurately. Beyond immediate use, the network will serve as a research tool for studying climate change and as an educational platform. Meteorology students at the local Vermont State University campus will have hands‑on experience, and some stations may even be placed on school grounds to spark interest in young people. The first station was funded by UVM’s Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, and the university is still scouting sites. Once all twenty stations are up, the state hopes to have enough data points to track small weather events that current radar misses.