Another round of severe weather rolled through Wisconsin last night.  Although Wausau missed out we did have some severe storms in our viewing area.  We also had a report of 4.5 inches of rain in Park Falls.  Looking at the radar estimates of rainfall it seems that Oneida county saw the most rain along with northern Price county.  The other area that got hit was Green Bay and the Fox valley area.  NWS put out a summary map:

  There was one tornado reported south of Greenleaf around 4:20 pm.  It had estimated winds around 95 mph making it an EF 1.  It destroyed a barn and damaged many roofs along with snapping and uprooting several trees.   The tornadoes path was about a mile long.  For more pictures and information you can click on this link.  There were also several downbursts with estimated winds of 80 mph which caused further damage.

As of Aug 17th we have seen 38 tornadoes, so including yesterdays that would put us at 39.  This puts us in third for the most tornadoes in a year in Wisconsin.  38 had us tied with 2008.  Number one occurred in 2005 when we saw 62 and second is 1980 which had 43 tornadoes.   Thankfully no one has been killed from the tornadoes although a few did have injuries reported with them.   

And last but not least, we have Tropical Depression 6.  It is forecasted to become a hurricane by Monday and will be on a path moving north in the Atlantic.  So for the US this storm should not impact us but could be a problem for the Bermuda. 

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Flooding, Hurricanes, Severe Weather, Storms, Summer, Tropics, Weather NEws

It is sweltering out there and I am not just talking about here.  Widespread 90′s and triple digits are spread all acorss the Ohio Valley, Mid Missippi and the Central plains. Check out that map of the current temps.  There are 100 + readings in several states.  To top it off it is also humid with dewpoints in the 70′s and even 80′s that is plain uncomfortable.  This would typically be called the “ring of fire”.  This is where we have a blocking high and major storms move around the high.  It will break down in a couple days but it has been strong yesterday and today.  If you look at the surface map you can see where the high pressure is settled over the southeastern US.

This is helping to keep the heat settled in one area.   Although there are a scattered showers popping up thanks to instability.  Because of the high pressure settled in the southeast the midwest will continue to be the target for major systems.  This means tomorrows storm system will shoot across the central plains and eventually bring us more showers and storms late Tuesday through early Wednesday.  Another system will also move in from the north into our area.  This means we will continue to be the target for the next week, meaning a very active week through next weekend. 

Speaking off active weather check out these stats

2009 Tornadoes : Minnesota had 31 we had 19

So far in 2010, Tornadoes: Minnesota has 103 ( the most of any state!) we have had 56.  This data is preliminary and according to the Storm Prediction Center.  The raw data can be more than the official.  Right now Green Bay’s official county for Wisconsin is at 38. 

Here are the stats of all tornadoes in 2009.

Here are the stats so far in 2010.

Stay cool and stay safe! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under forecast, Heat, Severe Weather, Storms, Summer, Uncategorized

I went to a talk in Stratford today at the library. They were great kids and adults and had some good questions.  Since it was a library talk I read a book about why it rains!

One question that an adult asked is if it was safe to go under and overpass during a tornado warning.  Of course we always advise to pay attention to the forecast and warning so that you don’t get caught in a situation where you are in a car during a tornado but if it does happen you do NOT want to go under an overpass.  I believe this was an old misconception that people may have been told years ago.  Here is a good discussion about the subject.  This also explains the best option- lie in a low lying area or a ditch and cover your head.

One of the other adults asked if we could forecast more for farmers.  For example say where there will be a few straight dry days so they can get their hay up.  I have to say I am a unfamiliar with what conditions are best for farmers but if any viewer ever has a specific question or an idea for a forecast please suggest it!

Here are a couple pics of my visit:

 Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under forecast, Severe Weather, Storms, Summer, Viewer pictures

What a day it was across North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.  From our graphics it shows we saw 59 tornadoes reported, 59 reports of hail, 32 reports of wind damage.  The official reports can be found here from The Storm Prediction Center.  The confirmed tornadoes will be reported over the next couple days as NWS crews get out and survey the damage.   

There are numerous stories on the tornadoes and the aftermath, I am sure we will be learning more through the day on the damage.  So far there have been three reported deaths and numerous injuries.  Here is  one wrap of the storms and another.  

Brian tweeted this video last night, it is very impressive video of the Tornado southwest of Wadena, MN.

This video is of the Monticello, MN tornado.

This is a video that was sent to KSTP, they were right next to the Wadena tornado.  It is pretty intense to say the least.  I have to say though please make sure to be careful when in severe storms espically with tornadoes.  Getting video is always neat but it is not worth peoples lives.   

For coverage of the recap and damage you can check out  our sister station KTTC - in Rochester, Minnesota. 

We have the chance of seeing our fair share of severe weather this afternoon.  I do not believe it will be anything like yesterday as our biggest threat should be damaging winds, not tornadoes.  Still tornadoes and large hail will be possible.  We will keep you posted throughout the day.  If you have any outdoor plans make sure to get out there now as we have sunshine across the area.

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Severe Weather, Storms, Summer

I can’t believe it’s already been 3 years now since ‘by far the worst storms since I’ve been here’ plowed through the area.  Maybe it seems just like yesterday because of the lack of severe weather since. 

It truly was a crazy day.  What I remember most leading up to that day was the build up and advanced warning.  From the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK,  to the NWS Green Bay office, down to to us, a great forecast was put out.  The potential for this level of severe weather was outlined days in advance.  It certainly was a sad day to see all the damage, but for a meteorologist it was also great day to find out there was no loss of life.  I think everyone was on their toes and ready.

On June 7, 2007 an EF 2 Tornado with winds up to 125 mph passed just south of Hatley in Marathon Co.  The tornado was on the ground for just over 7 miles and caused $350 thousand dollars in damage.  A stronger EF 3 tornado, packing winds up to 160 miles mph, tracked across Menominee, Langlade, and Oconto Counties.  This twister was on the ground for over 40 miles causing 15 million dollars of damage.  Most of the damage was to valuable timber, but thankfully this tornado missed every small town population center in the area.  There aren’t too many places in the state where an EF 3 tornado can travel for 40 miles with out hitting a town.

And last but not least was the hail…

The Wisconsin Rapids area was bombarded with extremely large hail.  In fact, the 2nd largest hailstone on state record was found in Port Edwards, measuring 5.5″.  The largest hailstone on state record was actually found in Wausau in the 1921.  This hailstone measured 5.7″.  The hail caused a total of 40 Million Dollars in damage to the Wisconsin Rapids area.  More than twice the amount of both tornadoes combined.

Here is the NWS write for June 7, 2007

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather, Weather History

Today the Storm Trak 9 Weather Team traveled to Green Bay for the 15th Annual NWS GRB Media Partners Seminar.  This is an opportunity for all the meteorologists in the Wausau/Rhinelander and Green Bay television markets to meet with each other and the NWS meteorologists. 

The seminar was great and the Bear Paw doughnut I had was also spectacular!!  As always the NWS gives several presentations and talking points for discussion.  

We first analysed a couple different winter systems we dealt with over the past year, one of course being the Blizzard or Near Blizzard of December 8/9.  This storm happened to be forecasted very well by area meteorologists.  Proper warning of the storm’s extent was given well in advance.  This storm was easier to forecast because it was simply “your classic major winter storm”….perfect track…and all the elements came together. 

We then discussed an April 7 Green Bay snowstorm and the May 7 North Central Wisconsin snowstorm.  These late season snowstorms were not forecasted as well.   With the April 7 storm, there were actually 2 systems which phased together.  The forecast computer models had a tough time handling this phasing.  And on May 7th, it was extremely tricky figuring out how much the snow will accumulate on the warm ground.  We took a look at each case study and analysed we did right, wrong, and what we could do differently.

We also talked a great amount about the positives and negatives of the new media movement.  Twitter, Facebook, and various station website tools have made it a lot easier and faster to receive view storm reports and pictures.  This of course can be a good thing but sometimes can also a bad thing. 

For example, take the storms that rumbled through the area on May 4th.  A couple of the storms became severe by the time they reached the Fox Valley.  A brief tornado touched down in Winnebago County and a Tornado Warning was issued.  After the initial report of a tornado, the area was flooded with reports and pictures of what people thought were other tornadoes in the area.  Almost all of these reports turned out to be false.  It is just a habit for many people to think any low hanging cloud is a funnel cloud or tornado.  Well…all these reports were relayed to the NWS.  They had to take them seriously do to the prior confirmed touchdown.  The NWS ended up issuing 4 more Tornado Warnings mainly based on false reports. 

On top of that..in the new age of new media, some of these pictures made it onto Green Bay media websites attached with viewer created tornado captions.  And they of course were not tornadoes.  Now I’m sure most of the people really thought they were seeing a tornado.  The most deceiving images come from a very well defined heavy rain shaft around Appleton/Kimberly.  It’s very easy for an untrained eye to have mistake it for a tornado.  Some completely false pictures actually from a past Oklahoma tornado were also uploaded.  There were endless reports of tornadoes across the Fox Valley with only 2 confirmed touchdowns.

Falsnado??

So we are in an age were everyone can be a reporter and everyone can be a photographer.  We can use this to our advantage but we the media have to recognize it’s still our job to only release credible information.  I am happy to say any picture uploaded onto “See It Shoot It Share It” or any other waow.com feature will be screened before its put on the website.  This is a big lesson learned for not only the Green Bay stations but for us as well.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather, Storms, Viewer pictures, Winter Weather

Just last weekend we saw a taste of the white stuff.  It is not  unheard of to see at least a trace of snow in North Central Wisconsin during the month of May but accumulating snowfall is usually a little bit out of the ordinary.

When  I was looking for something to blog about tonight I saw this story about a late May snowfall for the state of Wisconsin.  It actually didn’t impact Wausau as much as places like Waupaca and Pine River ( mainly counties to the south and east).  The snowstorm hit on the 29th of May.  In 3 days the temps dropped from the 70′s to the 30′s! The snow storm brought as much as a foot of snow to parts of Wisconsin and brought many cities their highest May snowfall on record, kind of odd since it is at the end of the month not the beginning!

For totals of snow, surface maps and more info check out they article.

On a side note.  The farm where parts of the movie “Twister” was filmed was hit by an actual tornado.  The tornado hit the farm this past Monday.  Te farm is owned by J. Berry Harrison Sr.’s and is located north of Oklahoma City by 120 miles in the city of Fairfax.  From the tornado he lost two houses, five barns, two silos, a hoarse and farm equipment.    

Right now the weather is looking quiet this week with only a slight chance of showers in the north tomorrow.  The next chance of rain won’t move in until the weekend.

Have a great week! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Records, Severe Weather, Spring, Storms, Winter Weather

Last year Vortex 2, the largest tornado research campaign ever, kicked off their study.  Unfortunately for the study, severe weather was minimal last season across the plains.  Vortex 2 however was able to collect some incredible data from the twisters they did encounter.

Well they are back at it again this year, and so far there has been way more action for them to study, well really chase, including Monday’s major tornado outbreak.  The over 100 scientists will then break down the data taken from events like May 10, and see what factored into that scale of an event.  Vortex 2 will likely learn more about tornadoes over these 2 years then anyone has over the past 2 decades.

To learn more about Vortex 2, check out there website.

And you can keep tabs on their travels through blogs

Meteorologist  Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather

The National Weather Service has conducted their storm survey and determined that 2 tornadoes did in fact touch down in Winnebago county early Tuesday evening .  The tornadoes were near Larson and Winchester.  According to the NWS survey the first tornado was a brief EF 1 with 90 mph winds.  This tornado was on the ground for about a mile.  It destroyed a barn and knocked down numerous pine trees.  The second tornado was a slightly weaker EF 0 at 80 mph.  This storm however was on the ground for over 3 miles and damaged several homes.

Click here for the official storm survey…

There is still some speculation these apparent tornadoes were in fact Gustnadoes.  What???…back that up…Gustnadoes?  Yep there is actually such a thing.  A gustnado is a a surface based swirl of wind which usually occurs ahead of the strong gust front associated with the storm.  there are several pictures of a shelf cloud with the storm, which would suggest a strong gust front.  Unlike a tornado, the intense rotation of a gustnado is not attached to the above cloud base.  Winds with a gustnado can still exceed 80 mph.  I wrote a blog about gustnadoes a while back…check it out.

Check out this video provided by WLUK in Green Bay… http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/Winchester-tornado-caught-on-tape

A viewer submitted the video.  It very well could be a tornado, but it also resembles a gustnado to me. 

According to the NWS… given the damage, sufficient rotation on Doppler radar, and eyewitness accounts..they could determine 2 tornadoes touched town. 

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather, Storms

We saw our first severe weather outbreak of the season.  I believe total we had 8 warnings with 4 at one time in Price, Lincoln, Oneida and Taylor counties.  The storms that produced a majority of the warnings were strong producing 60 to 70 mph winds and nickel size hail.  We had reports of power outages and trees down especiallyin Taylor county.  There was also a report of nickel size hail in Mosinee. 

Just out of our viewing area there were 3 confirmed tornadoes.  They occurred in rural areas but still did damage to power lines, barns and sheds.  One house had damage from the EF1 tornado.  These occurred in Green Lake and Marquette counties.  They occurred right around 7 pm.  I was watching them on the radar and was wondering if it would stay together to brush Waushara county.  But they did not hit in our area thankfully.  The EF1 had top winds of 110 mph where power lines were snapped, weakening to 80 to 90 mph winds along most of the tornadoes path.  The other two EF0 tornadoes had winds of 65 to 70 mph. 

On a different note today marks the beginning of May so lets take a look back at April!

Average High – 62.3,  Normal- 54.8   +7.5 above normal

Average Low- 38.2, Normal 33.2, + 5.0 above normal

Rain- 1.25″ , Normal- 2.84,   -1.59 below normal 

Snow- Trace, Normal – 3.8″  -3.8 below normal

In Wausau the average temp was 50.3 which is 6.3 degrees above normal. This ties our second warmest ever on record set back in 1910! The warmest was in 1915 with an average of 51.2.  The 3rd warmest was in 1987 with a temp of 50.0. 

In Rhinelander the average temp was 48.4 which is 7.5 degrees above normal! This is the 4th warmest ever April on record.  The warmest was also in 1915 with an average of 51.1. 

For more info on the records check out the report.

Have a good night, Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Records, Severe Weather, Spring, Storms