Here’s another reason Vermont is the best New England state: It’s home to one of the top 5 happiest cities in the United States.

Plus, it has another within the top 15.

Massachusetts, on the other hand, doesn’t even break the top 50. Nor, does Connecticut or Rhode Island.

The personal finance website analyzed 182 of the largest cities in the country, and ranked Boston 63rd overall. Although the city is home to some of the nation’s top universities, high-ranking hospitals, and well-regarded companies, it didn’t break the top 50.

To get the rankings, WalletHub compared the cities using 29 metrics, including life-satisfaction index, depression rate, poverty rate, job security, and acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, and cities were assigned an overall happiness score.

Here’s a look at how the cities ranked.

South Burlington is No. 4 happiest city, Burlington is No. 11

South Burlington came on top for Vermont in WalletHub’s list of the happiest cities in the United States, ranking at No. 4. In scored very high for emotional and physical well-being coming in at the No. 4 spot, which made up for coming in No. 48 for community and environment. It was No. 9 for income and employment ranking. That gave it a total happiness of score of 70.15

A tornado touched down in Vermont Thursday, when a strong storm system moved through the area, the National Weather Service said.

Winds are believed to have hit 90 mph when the tornado churned through Williamstown at about 9:15 p.m., the agency said Friday. That makes it an EF1 tornado on the Fujita Scale, which goes from 0 at the weakest to 5 at the strongest.

Lasting three minutes, the twister traveled for more than four-tenths of a mile, with a maximum width of 100 yards, according to the National Weather Service’s preliminary assessment. It damaged a pair of buildings and numerous trees, shearing tree tops. Golf ball-sized hail was also reported in the area.

Severe thunderstorms popped up across the North Country Thursday night, including in central Vermont — Williamstown is south of Montpelier.

The town thanked its road crew, firefighters and locals who spent hours in the wake of the storm cleaning up.

“We appreciate all that you do to keep the town functioning though an emergency situation,” the town said.

People in the area told NBC affiliate WPTZ that the storm was shockingly powerful, and National Weather Service staffer Marlon Verasamy said that while tornadoes in Vermont are rare, they’re even rarer in this part of the state.

“Generally, when we do see tornadoes around the area that they’ve been in Addison County and not here, so it make it really, really unique to get a tornado in this kind of terrain in this part of the state,” Verasamy said.

At the intersection of 6th Street and Vermont Avenue in Koreatown, the former headquarters of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health has a shiny new glass curtain wall, and a $210-million renovation and expansion project takes shape.

The 12-story tower, built more than 60 years ago at 550 S. Vermont Avenue, originally consisted of approximately 155,000 square feet of offices. The ongoing project, in addition to remodeling the look of the existing building, is adding an additional 88,000 square feet of space at the rear of the building, expanding its total office space to more than 240,000 square feet of space. The makeover also involves the construction of 2,000 square feet of commercial space at street level.

Gensler is designing the makeover, which includes matching design motif’s to the Department of Mental Health’s new headquarters – a 21-story tower which stands directly north on Vermont.

Trammell Crow Company is leading the development of the project, while Snyder Langston is serving as general contractor.

According to a June 2024 report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, potential occupants for the department’s former headquarters could include the County’s Human resources Division, the Executive office of the Board of Supervisors, the Department of Public Social Services, the Department of Children and Family Services, and the Department of Public Health.

The project is considered the final component of the Vermont Corridor redevelopment, which included the construction of the neighboring office tower and an affordable housing complex across the street.

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