As Justin mentioned they have now confirmed three tornadoes in Ashland and Iron counties.  The two in Ashland are the Morse tornado and Eastern Ashland county tornado.  The last one occurred in Iron county at the Turtle Flambeau Flowage.  Respectively they have classified them as a EF 1, Ef 0 and an EF 1.  This is just preliminary and could change but the released this information at just after 2 pm today, July 30th.

Brian and Justin have done a great job at recapping the event.  Having missed the July 14thoutbreak this was probably the most significant event that I have been apart of.  It really hit home for me when they released that some campers had been in tents when the tornado went through and one seriously injured.  It just shows how dangerous Mother Nature can be even in an area that rarely sees tornadoes.  In fact the Iron County tornado was the first tornado in the county since July of 1970! So 40 years has went by with not a single tornado. 

For more information you can read through the Duluth summary, they will update as they acquire more information.

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to EAA- one of my favorite events to attend.  I will be blogging and sharing some of my video from the event tomorrow!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Severe Weather, Storms, Summer

First in today’s blog entry I have to correct and update some information from yesterday’s entry. The NWS of Duluth has now identified 3 different tornado touchdowns from Tuesday’s storms. Two twisters touched down in Ashland county and one touched down in Iron county (the Springstead tornado). Read the updated Duluth NWS storm summary here. At the point I was writing the blog yesterday, the Duluth NWS office had only confirmed 2 tornadoes. Also, the Duluth summary mentions that the last confirmed tornado in Iron county was over 40 years ago whereas a link I found yesterday indicated a tornado in Iron county in 1983. I will have to contact the NWS of Duluth to find out the source of the discrepancy.

Well, it is just one of those days when a person runs out of time for blogging. I’ll just leave you with the most interesting science story I have come across recent. Actually, this is continuing coverage about cloaking. And yes, we are talking real cloaking like that of Star Trek fame (just not that advanced). In the past researchers were able to cloak items from microwave radiation. That is great, but our eyes don’t “see” microwave radiation. What is going to be spectacular is when cloaking devices for visible light arrive. As of now, it is getting closer. Researchers right in our backyard (Michigan Tech in Houghton) have created a material that can cloak in infrared.

Have a nice weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Severe Weather, Technology

The  National Weather Service will make it official on Friday that when it comes to weight, and diameter…we have a new hailstone record holder.  This gigantic hailstone along with many others fell on July 23rd Vivien, South Dakota.  There is extensive hail damage across the entire town.

The record hailstone weighs 1.8 pounds and has a diameter of 8 inches.  However, the hailstone’s circumference of 18.5″ falls short of the record 18.75″, recorded with a stone in Aurora, CO.

Many other people in Vivian claim to have even larger hailstones, some over 10″ in diameter.  Even the owner of the record stone says he didn’t find his until and hour and a half after the storm, so it easily could have melted quite a bit. 

Here is a video of the Hailstone..

And check out this picture of the storm which produced it!!! wow!!!

And here is a great article from a Rapid City Newspaper.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather

Following up on the storm surveys Brian first mentioned yesterday, the NWS out of Duluth has confirmed two brief tornado touchdowns. One in Ashland county and one in Iron county. In both instances their survey indicated a brief tornado touchdown followed by more widespread straight-line wind damage. As Brian mentioned yesterday, the storms were showing strong rotation which is generally a pre-requisite for tornado formation but does not always mean a tornado will form. What happens sometimes  (like west of Pittsville earlier in the month) is that a tornado forms but it is quickly over-run by a rear-flanking downdraft (another part of rotating/supercell storms). The rear-flanking downdraft is often quite strong. If I had to speculate, that is what I would say happened in Iron and Ashland counties. A tornado formed but then it was quickly blown-apart or over-run by the rear-flanking downdraft. This is of course just speculation because I have not seen the damage in person. What is most interesting about the tornado touchdowns in the northwoods is the relative infrequency at which they occur. According to this map, the tornado in Iron county was the first one since 1982 (although this list claims the last tornado in Iron county was in 1983). Once again, here is the link to the Green Bay damage survey, and to the Duluth survey.

The thunderstorms did produce some devastating wind damage but also produced more beneficial rainfall. Because the rain fell on Tuesday evening, it did not make it into this week’s US Drought Monitor tabulation. There was some improvement in the Wisconsin drought but not as much as one would expect, but any improvement is good. The amount of the state that is now drought-free increased from 75.5 percent last week to 76.9 percent this week. It should improve more next week because the heaviest rain from Tuesday’s storms fell in the areas that continue to experience drought.

Alternative Energy:

All week I have been focusing on positive news about the future (solar and battery technology keeps getting better, the Gulf Oil Spill is not as bad as originally portrayed) but you will notice I didn’t mention much about biofuels. It is not that there are no new developments in biofuel production (scientists decode switchgrass genome, microbes make fuel using energy from the sun), it is just that biofuels are not a great solution for the future – best used only as a bridge fuel to the future. Even though I know many hard-working positive people in the ethanol and biofuel industry, I still can’t jump on board. There is certainly some good reasons to keep producing biofuels on the small scale, but I can’t support a large scale societal switch. Solar-electric or nuclear-electric is much more efficient and there is much more room for improvement. Biofuels are carbon-based fuels. They create pollution and are at best neutral on carbon emissions. At worst - algal biofuels in particular – contibute to carbon emissions to a much greater extent that people realize. The floundering economy has forced the delay of many new biofuel plant building plans, and I would argue for that money (not being used to build new plants) to go toward research into other alternatives.

Have a good Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Drought, Severe Weather, Storms

The National Weather Service has been busy all day today surveying the storm damage from Tuesday nights storms.   A survey team from the NWS office in Duluth is looking over storm damage in southeast Iron County, while a survey team from the NWS office in Green Bay analyzed damage across Vilas County.  Two areas were hit especially hard from the storms…the Turtle Flambeau Flowage and just south of Conover.

The NWS determined Conover’s storm damage to be from a microburst.  They are estimating winds of 80 to 90 mph with higher gusts.  Over 40 to 50 homes where damaged from falling trees.  There was a large camp south of town with 650 campers.   Because of the advance warning, the campers were able to seek better shelter before the storm hit.  For more information on the Conover damage…follow this link.

Island campers on the Turtle Flambeau flowage were not as fortunate.  The storms caused several trees to go down on the island campsite, landing on and around the tents.  Sadly three campers where taken to the hospital, and one with critical injuries.  As I mentioned in my previous blog, there is a good chance this was a tornado.  The radar showed significant signs of rotation with this storm as it moved through.   Courtesy of the DNR, the pictures to your right are areal shots of trees flattened.  The NWS hopes to have their storm survey complete by tonight or Thursday.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather

First off, we had severe weather in the northwoods last night and several reports of trees down, power outages, and even vehicles at campgrounds being damaged, however we have not received any pictures of the event yet. If you know of anyone who was affect or if you have any pictures, please send them to weather@waow.comso we can have a look. From the storm reports and what Brian told me, it appears some of the worst damage occurred around the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage area in southern Iron county. Springstead, Lac Du Flambeau, and Minocqua were also hit. Because the areas are a couple hours from Wausau, it is unlikely that a member of our newsteam will be heading up there to record the damage. It is also a relatively long distance from the NWS offices of Duluth and Green Bay so there is no guarantee that the weather service will be out there to survey the situation or confirm a tornado touchdown. So it might be up to you (readers/viewers) to document this storm. If you have any videos or pictures, let us know.

Next I wanted to touch upon some good news, kind-of the theme of my blog entries this week (except for the severe weather of course). The good news is about the Gulf Oil Spill. It has been a tragic spill that cost lives (the 11 who died in the explosion and all the animals) money, and time. It is one of the worst oil spills in a long time, but as of now, it does not look like the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the world – as it has been portrayed many times in the media. Some commenters on environmental websites even claimed that 10% of the world’s population would die because of the oil spill. That is not going to happen. Perhaps you have missed the good news, but ever since last Thursday (nearly a week now), oil clean-up crews have not been able to find any oil on the surface. Some people are speculating that there are large amounts of oil under the surface but that is yet to be proven. The “large plumes” of oil that were reported last month were plumes of teeny-tiny droplets of oil. The plumes could not be seen by the naked eye, only with special detecting equipment. These “large” plumes were the ones forecast by some very limited computer models to affect the east coast and even northern Europe. Kristen mentioned that she did not see any oil at Venice Beach (FL) during her recent visit. This is also the report from residents up and down the west coast of Florida, except the far western Panhandle. Let us hope that the sun, heat, waves, and microbes are continuing to destroy the remaining oil at a good pace. So how did the reporting on the oil spill get so over-the-top. I suspect it was because the media created a “villian” in BP and Tony Heyward and because the U.S. government limited access and reporting about the oil spill. Without accurate data, the media and environmental websites ran wild with catastrophic predictions.

Before commenters come in and write a lot of vile things, let me again say that the oil spill was big and it has been tragic. There was, is, and still could be additional widespread environmental damage around the marshes of southern Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. It certainly has been traumatic for residents along the Gulf Coast. However, it has not been as big a catastrophe as was portrayed in the mainstream media, plus some good news is emerging (no oil on the surface for a week).

Big events like this should serve as a lesson in hyperbole. Overstating the facts can lead to hysteria and poor policy decisions that can sometimes compound an already bad situation.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Environment, Pollution, Severe Weather

Well …another round of severe weather has hit northcentral Wisconsin again this Tuesday evening.  As of 10:30 p.m. …trees and power lines are reported down from Wausau to the Northwoods.  The southern half of the area is next but it looks like the storms are loosing a little bit of their punch and falling below severe criteria.  Gusty winds will still be likely with the storms but the tornado threat is gone. 

One of the hardest hit areas appears to be across the far north, from Iron County through Vilas County.  There is a good chance some of the damage there could be from a tornado.  The Turtle Flambeau Flowage area appears to be hit especially hard, where we also have a report of 6 people injured and apparent rescues underway.  No other details available at this time.  Rotation on radar was probably the strongest over that area, so again, a tornado may be the reason for the damage and injuries.

The storms are also bringing another heavy dose of rain to the area which has it’s pluses and minuses.  Of course we don’t want to much rain in a small amount of time, which could cause flooding.  Also many area farmers are looking for a string of dry days to work on some hay!!  But we can’t neglect how this rain is also very nice for the long term deficit.  Hopefully some of the area lakes will continue to rebound.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather

Yesterday we covered a few different angles yesterday on the abundance of rain we have seen across North Central Wisconsin.  Since I saw the stories this morning I thought I would put the links to them on our blog.  I think these stories show us how the rainfall has been helping peopleeven though many people are yearning for it to stop.

One major way the rain has helped our area is related to crops….here is a story that we covered about the corn crop and how it is ahead of schedule.  One thing that stood out for me was that they haven’t had to water once! I am sure that most save them tons of money.  Unfortunately though not all crops thrive on the abundance of rain, smaller crops like snap beans and peas are being washed out from to much rain.  I believe this is related to the standing water and the roots not being able to breathe.  In the video it says about an inch a week is good.  Considering we have seen from about 6 to 9 inches in areas that is almost double what the crops “need” a week.

From work to play the rain is allowing some people to enjoy their summer a little more when the sunshine is out.  The Big Eau Pleine Reservoir is now up to normal levels after being in a drought for seven years! In the past seven years they have dipped as low as 40 inches below normal in that area.  They estimate they have seen 15 inches of rain so we are still 25 inches below normal.  As Sam Morgan, Manager of Operations with Wisconsin Valley Improvement says it, ”This year we’ve actually seen enough rain that the Wisconsin River is flowing at a sustainable rate all by itself and we don’t have to release any water out of our reservoir or at least we haven’t so far for the last two months, so we’re seeing reservoirs fill up.” Of course if we see the rain come to an abrupt stop, or if next few summers are like last summer then the reservoirs would end up back to below average. 

We are going to see another round of showers and storms today.  Showers are already moving into Wisconsin by early this morning and will continue to increase through the day.  It looks like it should spread from mainly Northwest to the Southeast.  A few showers/storms through the morning will be possible in Ashland, Iron, Price, Taylor and Clark and then everyone has a chance by the afternoon and evening.  A cold front will move through overnight ending showers and storms mainly by Wednesday morning.  A few showers will still be possible mainly south of 29 through Wednesday morning.  There is the possibility of strong to severe storms so we will watch them closely for large hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Posted under forecast, Severe Weather, Storms, Summer, Weather NEws

For the evening blog update I just wanted to continue on the theme of positive trends in technology and clean energy. The world needs a little more good news. When it comes to current pollution and the forecasts of potential long term AGW things can seem rather dire but all is not lost. By some perspectives the future could even be called rosy.

First a tiny pat on the back for the U.S. In a recent survey, the U.S. did not rank worst in proportional environmental impact or absolute environmental impact. Don’t get to excited about this result, the U.S. still ranks fairly low and we have a tough road ahead. The hardest part about the U.S. “coming clean” is that we have built up an infrastructure mostly revolving around the automobile. Even if AGW is mostly hype, the plain fact that the U.S. has paved over millions and millions of acres beautiful natural land, makes it very hard to reduce environmental impact. We have a love affair with the automobile and this affair is at the expense of clean air, water, and soil. The only way that this will change soon is if Peak Oil theorists are correct and the price of gas shoots up to $10 a gallon. Otherwise I think we are looking at a decade or two before the gas fleet is replaced with electric vehicles or something else that is cleaner. Unfortunately, even if everyone decided to dump cars and switch to trains and planes, it would take a long long time and cost a lot of money to dismantle all the sprawling ugly concrete and asphalt infrastructure.

Since I just mentioned planes (airplanes), there is some good news here as well. They are becoming more energy efficient. The Dreamliner from Boeing has of course garnered headlines and airlines are scooping it up hoping to save about 20% on fuel costs. Now MIT researchers have proposed a new design that could save up to 70% on current fuel usage. The design has a body that allows for more lift and wing designs that match the efficiency of the engines. The changes are not that dramatic, but calculations indicate it could save A LOT of fuel – 70% more efficient. The one minor drawback is that is does not fly as fast, but it isn’t so slow so as to be bothersome.

Many of you have probably already read about Solar Impulse – the first all electric plane that will attempt flying around the world non-stop, but what about helicopters? Believe it or not, Sikorsky plans to fly a piloted electric helicopter for the first time this year. They want to explore the potential benefits of all electric flight.

In less flashy news, more and more small companies and entrepreneurs are coming up with ideas on saving electricity in high rise office buildings. They mostly revolve around smart monitoring of lights and air conditioning. tests show some of these system can reduce energy usage of a building by a significant percentage. Read more here.

A bit more flashy (sometimes literally) are solar panels. A new nano coating developed by Yi Cui of Stanford could help produce much cheaper solar cells. I have reported about different nanoscale enhancements on solar cells over the last year, but many of them are very difficult to scale up and/or are very expensive. Cui’s method is simpler and could dramatically reduce the cost of thin film solar cells.

Have a good evening! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Technology

See Kristen’s recent post about the east coast heat wave for a primer on the following discussion.

For many years, every heat wave, every record high, every strong hurricane, nearly every bad thing that happened in the world, no matter how tenuously linked to the weather, was blamed on anthropogenic global warming (AGW). I take it as a sign that strong advocates of AGW theory have learned a lesson when not many people are linking the recent heat waves in the eastern U.S. to AGW and clamoring for innumerable new taxes, laws, and regulations to strictly limit and reduce energy use by humans. In fact, one of the more refreshing articles came from newscientist.com – mentioning that one heat wave or one warm year does not prove AGW is fact. It is only a small piece of evidence that goes into the climate puzzle.

This is a timely and lonely article in what I would hope is the start of bringing more people together on scientific and political climate issues. For about 10 to 15 years starting around the early 1990s, AGW theorists and media advocates used annual increases in global temperatures to brow beat everyone into accepting the climate model/AGW predictions as gospel. Dissenters, even people with legitimate scientific questions, were treated horribly – publicly humiliated. It is no wonder then that after 1998, when the global temperature actually went down slightly and remained fairly level, that the humiliated wanted to turn the tables. With the recent flubs in the IPCC report and the climategate emails, revenge was getting easy.

So now comes a warm year similar to 1998, and no doubt there will be some increased discussion about climate. Thankfully, so far, it hasn’t been as heated or condescending as back in the 1990s and early 2000s. The newscientist articleis a step in the right direction – however, judging by the comment section of the article, we still have a long way to go. Many of the commenters still seem to want heated rhetoric (to ”rip” AGW skeptics) instead of level-headed factual presentation.

If you are more worried about AGW because of the recent heat waves, remember that scientific progress into solutions continues. I am not talking about geo-engineering solutions like putting aeresols into the atmosphere to shade the sun and other potentially dangerous ideas, but about the rapid development and deployment of cleaner energy solutions, and about the prospect of removing carbon dioxide from the air. Even if human carbon emissions are only a part of recent warming (as I believe), then removing the excess could prove some benefit.  I was heartened to see an article recently that mentioned the prospect of removing carbon dioxide from the air (relatively difficult because it is a very stable molecule). One group of researchers has even developed a design (just on paper at this point) for a machine that would use solar energy to take carbon dioxide out of the air. They have made a bold claim that with widespread deployment of their machine they could remove excess carbon dioxide from the air in as little as 10 years. That is a pretty bold claim! Details in the article are scant. Still, breaking down carbon dioxide is a known process that only requires an efficient method to get it done – using a clean energy source. The STEP process mentioned in the article might be the start of something good.

Have a good Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under AGW, Climate Change, Heat