8/18/05: NOW: Great Lakes Area

[Justin Turcotte]

A good friend of mine and fellow meteorologist in Rock County WI bagged his first tornado today. He also stated that local news reports a tornado crossed busy interstate 90 and overturned several vehicles. Hopefully we are just limited to injuries today as southern WI is densely populated relative to the Plains.

 

[Alex Lamers]

The NWS in Sullivan has done an excellent job with this situation. They have had an extraordinary amount of lead time and the live broadcasts have provided excellent detailed information.

I tell ya...I have newspaper clippings falling out of the sky here and i was 25 miles away from the tornado. And...you can see the puncture holes from debris in the clipping. It was falling out of anvil level clouds. Also there is a great CC lightning show going on as well.

They were interviewing people from Stoughton, WI in Dane County and a guy rated damage a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10 with houses "gone". Cell phone pictures show a LARGE wedge tornado.

...Alex Lamers...

 

[Kevin Bowman]

sorry for the quality
picture of a tornado over Stoughton

http://www.wkowtv.com/index.php/news/story...ry/p/pkid/22031

 

[Jarrod Cook]

I haven't seen a supercell this long lived in WI ever. It's a classis cyclic supercell. The same one that hit Stoughton is still rotating like a beast! I can't beleive I didn't go North.

 

[mikegeukes]

If the 24 or so tornadoes verify in Wisconsin, it will
set a monthly record and a daily record for tornadoes
for the month of August.

I looked at data for August for Wisconsin, from 1950-2004.

As more information streams in about the tornadoes in Wisconsin,
here are some links to the local tv stations and newspapers to check
out, I would check them from time to time overnight and on Friday,
to see what information is added about the tornadoes.
Local TV Station Links in Wisconsin

La Crosse WI:
http://www.wkbt.com/ -Ch. 08
http://www.wxow.com/ -Ch.19

Madison WI:
http://www.channel3000.com/index.html -Ch. 03
http://nbc15.madison.com/ -Ch.15
http://www.wkowtv.com/index.php/home -Ch. 27

Milwaukee WI:
http://www.todaystmj4.com/ -Ch. 04
http://www.fox6milwaukee.com/ -Ch. 06
http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/index.html -Ch.12
http://www.cbs58.com/ -Ch. 58

Newspapers
http://www.madison.com/ -Madison WI
http://www.jsonline.com/ -Milwaukee WI

WIFI place close to the campground, and my laptop, cannot beat that,

I have a blog now, LOL.
http://efchasing.blogspot.com/

Mike (Time to sit by the campfire)

 

[Tony Perkins]

Looks like there was a fatality

"One person was killed and at least six people were injured Thursday night..."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug05/349369.asp

 

[Alex Lamers]

Channel 4 in Milwaukee showed footage of a house that had no exterior walls remaining and the contents of the house were lying to the east of the foundation.

A bank slip was found in milwaukee county from the stoughton area, over 60 miles away.

...Alex Lamers...

 

[Kevin Bowman]

Madison WI:
http://www.channel3000.com/index.html -Ch. 03

Mike (Time to sit by the campfire)

this has live coverage with video of what looks to be a large tornado

 

[Jamie Grunewald]

Granted this several hours after the fact but I live in Sussex (5 miles N of Waukesha) and I witnessed leaves or what seemed be shredded corn stalks and a battered Mountain Dew label falling from the sky in the front of my complex. All I can say is, purely amazing.

Jamie

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I just talked to Mark Sefried, who was chasing with Scott Kampas, and they witnessed the Stoughton tornado. They also said they were much too close to it, however, said that it reminded them of the Hesston, KS tornado from 1990. THey said the tornado and sky were just filled with debris.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I just talked to Mark Sefried, who was chasing with Scott Kampas, and they witnessed the Stoughton tornado. They also said they were much too close to it, however, said that it reminded them of the Hesston, KS tornado from 1990. THey said the tornado and sky were just filled with debris.

I haven't been able to find much in the way of amateur pictures on the various TV websites... There is a video here (http://nbc15.madison.com/home/headlines/1780862.html ) that shows a long white rope tornado/funnel. Other than that, I've just seen broken trees, F0 roof damage, and a "destroyed" barn (though it doesn't take much to destroy a barn most of the time).

 

[J West]

My report is delayed...had to get home and out to work. This is not a specific chase report, so I put it here.

I arrived in SW Waukesha County a little after 1830, and stood by in the Eagle/Palmyra area. I was able to listen to reports from our SC region (State Patrol) troopers in/around Stoughton about the tornado, and to the live MKX broadcast.

A trooper advised when the circulation crossed I-90, and within minutes the DeForest Post was receiving numerous calls for a blown over semi blocking all NB lanes on I-90 north of where the storm crossed. Shortly thereafter, other damage reports were coming in from Stoughton from both Public Safety and Skywarn spotters.

As mentioned, MKX did a great job with the live nowcasting. It was a help to the public, and us in the field, as we got the exact locations and information about the tornado.

At my location north of Eagle, I also had lightweight debris fall for a short time. The Waukesha Sheriff got numerous reports from the SW and SC parts of the county about debris falling from the sky.

I was in place to intercept the storm, however it became rain-wrapped and light was failing. I would have still played it, but also took a right turn to the SE once it moved east of Fort Atkinson. This meant a core punch, which I was unwilling to do for obvious safety reasons.

I remained in the area as long as I could, and listened to spotty reports of funnels in Walworth county. No damage or touchdowns were reported that I heard.

Now that I am at work, if I find out more about the situation in Stoughton, I'll make a brief post.

 

[Andrew Khan]

Umm, I have a question. Last night I watched the storms in WI for the longest period of time. I saw it get nearer and nearer to Lake Michigan. was there in fact a supercell thunderstorm? As it got onto lake Michigan, did it get stronger, or did it weaken? I was thinking the supercell completely dissipated, and in it's place, a squall line developed, am I correct. But last night here, at about 12:00 Eastern Time, Michigan Western Michigan, was under a Tornado Watch...and then when I woke up this morning, they were still under the warning...the exact same area. How is this possible? Overnight, would it have not cross completely over the MI area? How can that watch still be their, when the storm was on lake MI, at 12:00 last night?


I also heard that one of these tornados was an F3-F4, is that correct, and their was 1 fatality, and 12-13 injuries from this. How many tornados were developed in this outbreak in WI? Was the strongest an F4? That specific storm finished moving across, and so, how can their be one?

 

[J West]

Local news choppers are hovering over Stoughton for the various morning news shows, and there is easily F4 damage.

 

[Carrie Halliday]

I have good friends in Beloit. Am so thankful they were missed. My heart goes out to those not so fortunate.

Question: Are the homes up there structurly strong? I would think so because of the cold, but have not been up there. I know this is very important in rating the damage. TWC pics are not telling me the whole story.