The 35th anniversary of one of the worst thunderstorm wind events to hit northern Wisconsin is July 4th. The landscape in a long strip from near Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota to east of Rhinelander in Wisconsin was devastated by straight-line winds to 100 mph or stronger.
The anemometers at the airports near Phillips and Rhinelander registered 100 mph winds before they blew away. The storm cluster struck that area from around 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. as it rapidly raced eastward.
It flattened huge amounts of forest, destroyed or damaged many buildings and killed one person, and injured 35 others. This storm was extensively studied by severe weather and tornado researcher, Dr. Ted Fujita. He of course developed the famous Fujita Scale to measure tornado intensity based on the damage caused.
Please see the following link put together by Jeff Last of the National Weather Service in Green Bay for more information on this incredible event. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/grb/events/070477.php
Posted under Natural Disasters, Severe Weather, Storms, Summer
This post was written by Tony Schumacher on July 2, 2012
I was at our cabin in Sawyer Co. with my family during the down-burst of 77. It was incredible. We lost nearly all of our trees, which were mostly hemlock and white pine. Seven were on top of the cabin. We still have a large maple tree that is a reminder of that storm which leans considerably.
Wow, that sounds like a scary experience. How does it look now? Have the other trees grown back up or does it still look strange?
We were in the middle of this in the city of Phillips. It was so very hot we were planning to take our kids and to the beach. My sister and her children were at our house for a cookout and we were all going to go. My father, who was a sky watcher said we shouldn’t go as the sky was such a funny color green. Then it hit and we all went to the basement except my dad who was watching it from our garage which is attached to the house. Trees went down, a trailer across the road rolled over and was completely demolished. Then it pretty much stopped and we all went outside and were standing around and the wind started up again and back to the basement we went. After it was done you couldn’t even walk on the street so many trees went down. The first thing was all the help with cutting the brush and big trees so people could get around. Many people came and helped. My folks lived on a 80 acre farm and pretty much every tree went down. They have all grown back now but not the same as it was. My dad’s woods was full of huge white pine. The trees that came back are poplar, birch etc. and now after all these years the hardwoods are growing big again. I hope never to see that kind of storm again. We were very lucky our house stood after that and all that happened on my dad’s farm was the tree’s and some tin panels were gone from his barn roof. Many others lost homes or their homes were badly damaged. All in all we were truly blessed that nothing worse happened that day.
Thanks for telling your story Sally. It is really neat to hear from people who lived through it.
Sally. You have a very good memory of what happenned. I guess something so dramatic and impacting has that effect. Thanks for sharing.