Severe thunderstorms are likely today across the northern Plains and into the upper Mississippi Valley. Gusty winds and dry conditions will result in widespread critical fire weather through Saturday across parts of the Four Corners region and the Great Basin. A significant and dangerous heat wave will expand from the Central U.S. into the Eastern U.S this weekend through much of next week. Read More >
Overview
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Two rounds of severe thunderstorms moved through south central Wisconsin on the evening of August 4th, 2016. The first round of storms brought the most damaging weather, and Iowa county saw most of the damage. In Iowa county, there was widespread tree damage, several downed power poles, and even a destroyed barn. In addition to the damaging winds, these storms also brought ample rainfall to much of the area. One location saw over 2 inches of rain! Unfortunately, our driest areas in far southeastern Wisconsin missed out on the bulk of the rain yet again, and they remain abnormally dry.
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 Radar loop of the evening's storms. |
Wind:
As mentioned above, Iowa county saw the strongest winds in the state. The highest winds were associated with the first round of storms that moved though the county. The widespread tree damage, downed power poles, and other structural damage indicate that these winds were at least 60mph across much of the county. Some of the damage suggests that winds may have been up to 100 mph in a few locations.
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| Radar loop over Iowa County. Reflectivity on the left, velocity on the right. In the velocity image, notice the enhanced green coloring on the leading edge of the storm. This is indicative of strong to severe winds | Damaged power pole in Iowa County. If this pole was in good condition before the winds arrived, it would have taken 100mph winds to snap the pole like this. Photo by Mike Schmit. |
Rain Reports
Portions of south-central Wisconsin saw very heavy rainfall with yesterday's storms in addition to strong to damaging winds. Some of the highest totals were 1.88" in New Glarus and a whopping 2.38" in Brownsville. You'll notice that the rainfall totals in the image below below are quite spotty. That's a hallmark of summertime thunderstorms, where some locations receive a lot of rain, and other locations not too far away receive much less.
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