Close to home, my brothers

Posted at 12:26 PM on January 8, 2008 by Craig Edwards (3 Comments)

Twenty-four hours ago I was writing about the unusual severe weather that was occurring in central Wisconsin in the heart of winter. In the weather forecasting and warning business you learn to take advantage of clues that Mother Nature presents about the short term potential for disaster.

While listening to Paul Huttner doing his 345PM chat with Tom Crann, it was reported that a tornado warning was issued for a severe storm in the vicinity of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Knowing that very talented meteorologists were monitoring the radar and environment in the Milwaukee Weather Service Office I suspected this might be the real deal. Moving quickly to the weather lab and pulling up the radar imagery it was indeed a classic super cell with very strong rotation.

I made the phone call to my brother in Fontana Wisconsin and got no answer. The family had already taken shelter in the basement. Speaking to my brother Tommy around 5PM he suggested the storm was only about 5miles south of his home about 350PM. He noted the tornado sirens had been sounded, the sky was black and hail pelted the area.

Paul Huttner’s earlier blog has a great link to the radar imagery of this extremely rare severe weather outbreak.

Not much more than a week ago, the same area of Wisconsin was buried under eight inches of snow. It is highly likely that tornadoes occurred in southern Wisconsin with remaining snow piles and ice on Lake Geneva.

The secondary story is the flooding that is a result of the rapid snow melt and drenching rains.
Precipitation estimates

Our next chance for precipitation moves in on Wednesday night and extends into Thursday night.
CE

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Comments (3)

You are our weather boy! Thanks for the calls.

Posted by Tom Edwards | January 8, 2008 2:40 PM

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The tornado which went through the Wheatland, WI area, which is near where your brother lives, was a EF-3 with winds near 150 mph and a 10+ mile damage path. This strong of a tornado is unusual for anywhere in the US this time of year, much less in the heart of the Great Lakes. Luckily, no deaths have been reported and only a dozen or so injuries. Glad to hear your family came through ok.

As for the weird weather. We did have 8 inches of snow last week (some places more) and may be getting 2-4 inches or more Thursday or Friday.

We have a saying here in Wisconsin: If you don't like the weather..... wait 5 minutes, it will change.

This week proves that saying correct. Who would have ever thought of heavy snow, then severe weather with tornadoes, then more snow.... all in a weeks time. Typical Wisconsin weather but not usually during the same week.

Posted by Gregg Schulz | January 9, 2008 11:24 AM

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Here is a link to pictures of the damage, Doppler radar images and a post of the Milwaukee, WI weather sounding about 1 hour prior to the tornadoes developing

Posted by Gregg Schulz | January 9, 2008 11:25 AM

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