Summer is back

[adamb100]

For today anyway. It's 81 degrees out and kinda muggy.

[PlayerHader]

It was GORGEOUS out today in central WI.

[Gobias Industries]

The temp was nice, but what is with all the wind? Since I've been back from Milwaukee, every day here except Saturday has had gusting winds.

 

It makes it tough to do just about any outdoor activites. I have been itching to take out the boat, but the lake has been really rough.

[trwi7]

Maybe it's just me but I hate this weather (not fond of winter either.) Spring and fall are cool with me. I need to find someplace else to live because the summers and winters here suck.

[dadofandrew]

We call that a breeze in these parts.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Invader3K]

I think we maybe had a week of real spring weather here.

[T B0NE 10]

what i noticed is that it was somewhat light out until almost 9 pm

[bigredrobbo]

I was golfing this morning and thought how much I'd rather be driving a boat into that wind than a golf ball!

[Glennron]

It was 80 here earlier today, but I was just outside five minutes ago and could see my breath, yikes.

[NeedMoreFans]

Yeah, it's not so summer-like this morning. It was almost 70 when I went to bed last night, and now it's down to near 40. Burrrrr....

[owbc]

Yesterday was awesome!!! It was a little humid, but it wasn't too bad.

 

There should be storms on Friday, I'm looking forward to that.

[bork]

That was a crazy weather change yesterday evening. It went from 75 to 50 in about an hour.

[owbc]

Yeah, there have been several sharp temperature drops along Lake Michigan this year.

 

The term for this is a "Pneumonia Front" which refers only to fronts that drop along the shore of Western Lake Michigan. According to the definition, the one-hour temperature drop must be 16 degrees or greater. Yesterday, the temperature at Mitchell at 8 PM was 78 degrees and one hour later it was 49 degrees, so that 29 degree temperature drop would definitely qualify.

 

There doesn't seem to be much research on these (at least on the Internet), but I imagine the cold waters of Lake Michigan help to create cool, dense air that accelerates down the lake due to the lack of friction and spills inland.

[bork]

That makes sense about the cold Lake Michigan water. At the beginning of spring, I heard that the water temperature was 33 degrees. It's going to take a while for that the warm up.

There have also been some extreme "cooler by the lake" days. I remember one where I left work downtown when it was 50 degrees. Had the heat on in the car. Got home to Muskego and it was 75 and had the windows open.

[owbc]

I guess that's the part I don't understand--why these fronts are rare compared with the lake breeze that occurs virtually every spring afternoon. I guess technically, the lake breeze line is a cold front, but the pneumonia front originates to the north and shoots rapidly down the lake in the late evening hours. They also seem to be associated with large, synoptic scale cold fronts, as all of the Midwest was much cooler today.

 

However, while Mitchell had a 29 degree temperature drop in one hour, Truax in Madison only dropped 9 degrees, and this drop occured from 10 to 11 PM. La Crosse did not experience any rapid decline, but still dropped 30 degrees--but it was over a period of about 8 hours, like you would expect with a normal cold front.

 

So, I think the pneumonia front originates from the normal cold front, which extended from about Green Bay to Minneapolis yesterday evening. The combination of the strong temperature difference across the front, the east-west orientation of the cold front, and the specific geography of Lake Michigan creates these rapid temperature drops which are only found along the west shore of the lake.

 

I'm kind of curious about this now, maybe I will ask one of my professors.

[owbc]

It's been ten years since the May 30-31, 1998 Derecho, who remembers it?

 

I was only 11 years old at the time and I was woken up by my parents because they were concerned about the weather. I looked outside to see the strongest and loudest winds that I have ever experienced (to this date). The wind was whistling very loudly and when the gusts peaked, it sounded like a loud train, which I imagine is similar to what people hear in strong hurricanes or tornadoes. In Greenfield (where I'm from), the peak measured wind gust was 103 mph, which coincides with a Cat. 2 Hurricane or an EF-2 Tornado. The result was that two of the radio towers near our house were snapped off like twigs, along with trees down everywhere of course. The whole thing only lasted about 15 minutes, but I definitely won't forget it.

[bullox]

I remember that... I grew up in Greendale (right next to Greenfield for those unaware) and we were definitely hit pretty hard by the winds too. I remember lots of trees down and lots of commercial signage down as well. I remember the gas station sign at the corner of 76th and Layton was taken out. For some reason that sticks out in my memory.

[NeedMoreFans]

Yeah, I remember that vividly. I was a junior in high school and it was the night before my confirmation at church. Earlier that week, we had a German foreign exchange student arrive at our house. We told him about tornadoes and the sirens and what to do if the sirens blare. My window was open that night when I went to bed, not knowing that it was supposed to rain. I remember waking up to the sound of distant thunder. I laid in bed for a couple minutes, and then the tornado sirens went off. My first reaction was "Oh, poop" and adrenaline kicked in as I raced to the basement. On my way from my room to the basement, I noticed my father outside getting cushions off of the patio set. Hans, the German kid, had still not made it downstairs...he was asleep. We got him up and downstairs as well. I remember a constant roar as well as constant lighting. The next morning, my dad came in to wake me up so we could drive around town looking at the damage. I lived in Port Washington at the time. On the north side of town, there is a Sentry and there used to be a Burger King across the street. The cart corrals from Sentry ended up blown up against Burger King, and I think one made it up to Allen-Edmunds. Someone I knew had their trampoline end up 3 blocks away in a tree. Huge trees were knocked down all over town, crushing cars and garages. My house was without power for close to 24 hours. Somehow the church where confirmation was held still had power, so it still went on. A couple days after, we drove to West Bend. As we passed the airport on Hwy 33, there were probably a half-dozen planes flipped over and a couple hangers knocked down. We took a lot of pictures that day...

[Bikeage77]

In Riverwest, we declared it summer a few weeks ago when we played our first game of Gunshots or Fireworks.

[hawing]

Watch out to the northwest of Madison - there's a bunch of tornado warnings, covering (among other areas) Prairie du Chien and the Dells.

 

Madison TV channels all have their weekend backup metereologists doing the live storm coverage. With all due respect, you can tell they're the backups. One person's voice is shaking; I wonder if she has loved ones in the affected area.

 

Edit: Now Columbia County is included. Watch out, FTJ!

[dadofandrew]

No AC yet, so it's not summer here.

[PeaveyFury]

Major warnings everywhere west of Madison. Dew points in Watertown are 81- practically unheard of, and leading to fast developing serious weather.

 

Be safe everybody!

[trwi7]

I got tornado warnings all around me in northwest Waukesha County and they look like they'll be moving in soon. It got really dark to the north and west just a few minutes ago and the wind is picking up.

[Fatter than Joey]

Edit: Now Columbia County is included. Watch out, FTJ!

 

Yep its tornadoey here

[trwi7]

Oh noes! Tornado warning in Waukesha County. I'm hearing thunder. Maybe I'll go stand out in the garage and watch.