Updraft: July 28, 2010 Archive

Free air conditioning

Posted at 8:12 AM on July 28, 2010 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Severe weather, Summer

Minnesotans can breathe easier today. Literally.

A fresh northwest breeze is ushering in a cooler and much drier air mass in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. Canadian high pressure is building in from the northwest. The cooler clean Canadian air is cleaning out the haze and gunk and dropping dew points from the upper 70s and low 80s yesterday, to the 50s today. You'll notice (and hopefully enjoy) less than half the water vapor in the air today compared to Tuesday.

Storm reports:

Tuesday's line of severe thunderstorms spared many areas in the metro, but caused a swath of damage stretching from Fargo through St. Cloud to north of the metro (and northern metro) and into western and northern Wisconsin.

There are reports of injuries on Madeline Island in the popular Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin, and near Mercer. The Duluth NWS office is sending a survey team to investigate today.

Here are the storm reports from the Duluth NWS.

DLH: Madeline Island [Ashland Co, WI] broadcast media reports TSTM WND GST of E60.00 MPH at 27 Jul, 06:00 PM CDT -- weather channel reports 3 injuries at campground on apostle islands. damage to cars and trees. time estimated by radar

DLH: Turtle Flambeau Flowage [Iron Co, MN] emergency mngr reports TSTM WND DMG at 07:40 PM CDT -- *** 6 inj *** preliminary report. rescues in progress on the islands.

Weather winning streak?

There are signs that our stormy weather pattern may ease a bit over the next two weeks. Our next round of thunderstorms looks like it will roll through early Friday morning. Other than that, it should be a fairly quiet pattern as we head into the weekend.

After another shot at T-Storms Monday, next week may turn out fairly quiet for a change as a slightly drier northwest flow develops in the upper atmosphere.

The jet stream is never too far away though, and we'll have to keep an eye out for periodic storms. Hopefully our 6 week long onslaught of storms and severe weather parade is wining down.

Enjoy the best weather Minnesota has to offer today and tomorrow!

PH

Storms cause significant damage in Wisconsin

Posted at 4:53 PM on July 28, 2010 by Paul Huttner (4 Comments)
Filed under: Severe weather

The storms that rumbled through central Minnesota turned even more severe as they raced into northern Wisconsin Tuesday night.

GOES 1km visible loop shows severe storms mushrooming to over 50,000 feet Tuesday night.

The Duluth NWS office is reporting significant damage in Ashland, Bayfield and Iron counties in Wisconsin. The area is a popular summer destination for boaters and campers, and there are reports of some injuries.

Morse, WI in Ashland County. Photos courtesy of Paul Ostrum from the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

It appears this may have been a wide spread "blowdown" type event. A series of downbursts, or straight line wind events combined with possible tornadoes tore through the white pines pretty good Tuesday night.

The Duluth NWS has survey teams out today and posted this update today.

Latest News

•Survey Update (3:54 PM): The survey team is still in the field and assessing the damage. We will post the details when we have more information - either late today, or sometime tomorrow.
•Storm Surveys: The NWS Duluth will be dispatching a storm survey team to Bayfield, Ashland, and Iron Counties today to conduct a damage assessment. We received many reports of damage in these areas and radar signatures indicated the possibility of tornadoes. An unconfirmed report of a tornado was received from the Morse area in Ashland County. The survey team will determine whether or not the damage in the area was caused by non-tornadic thunderstorm winds or by tornado(es).
•We Could Use Pictures and Reports: If you have any pictures or reports from the severe weather event, feel free to email us by clicking here or give us a call at 1-218-729-6794

Fast Facts

•14 warnings issued by NWS Duluth - 4 Tornado Warnings and 10 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
•30 severe weather reports received by the NWS Duluth. We also received 16 additional non-severe reports.
•Up to baseball size hail reported in Bayfield County, where wind driven hail caused a substantial amount of damage, particularly in the Delta township.

More data will be available when the team finishes its work.

PH

(4 Comments)