The 2009 Wisconsin Spring/Summer thread

[NeedMoreFans]

It poured briefly, and now there is quite a bit of lightning out there....just as I was about to go to bed.

[trwi7]

I see lightning in Hartland.

[hawing]

Tornado warning just being explained on the weather radio now, for Iowa County. Crap, I'm not going to sleep much at all tonight.

[NeedMoreFans]

I got just under an hour of sleep. Constant lightning and thunder are keeping me up. I sure hope we don't hear sirens tonight...

[trwi7]

Severe T-Storm warning for me. Constant lightning and the loudest thunder I've ever heard.

[adamb100]

We have a Tornado warning in southern Milwaukee county. Guess theres one near Jansville too.

 

Edit: 10 seconds after I typed this the one in Milwaukee County got canceled.

[owbc]

Looks like we got off easy. There was some 2.75" hail in Dane County and a few scattered reports of trees down, but no tornadoes.

 

Edit: I just noticed the main story was the rain. Looks like up to 4-5 inches in some areas, especially western Milwaukee County/eastern Waukesha County.

[hawing]

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0473_radar.gif

 

Whoa, so that's what kept many of us up last night.

And there was a new severe thunderstorm watch issued at 7:00 this morning, for the state-line counties (Grant, Lafayette, Green, Rock, Walworth), until 3:00 PM.

That's an eight hour watch!

 

 

 

[NeedMoreFans]

That rain and lightning was nuts last night. It's been a long time since I have seen such constant lightning for such a long period of time. I think I got so exhausted just after 1:00 that I crashed...thunder/lightning or not.

 

I'm acutally hoping for another round today, just to get rid of the humidity. It's downright oppressive (I'm in a place that has no AC at the moment).

[owbc]

The sun is now out across much of the region, which should act to destabilize things fairly rapidly. Most of the action should be concentrated along and south of I-94 due to the location of the warm front. Flooding is the main threat now with isolated severe thunderstorms. I do not consider tornadoes to be a threat today although you can never rule them out.

[adamb100]

I assume either the 20th or today was/is the first day of summer. Either way it got off to a great start. Little too humid though.

[hawing]

The solstice happened overnight, about 12:45 AM CDT. So we are in the first ten hours of summer, as I write this!

And yeah, I could do with less humidity, but it felt worse when I left work Friday in downtown Madison. Plus, our air conditioner's in place, so I guess we're "ready."

[NeedMoreFans]

Well, people were wondering where summer was. Here it is. What a wonderful heat wave we're having. I already miss spring and 70s.

[hawing]

It might just be me being impatient, but I'm not enjoying the weather living near Milwaukee. It hasn't been incredibly warm in the last month, which I miss. Also, the family seems to be getting better storms in SW Wisconsin. Last summer was really enjoyable in that regard. I like storms and it seemed like we had a nice thunderstorm every three days or so. I'm probably just not giving it enough time.

Yeah, Jumpin, hope you're feeling better now. Stormy, flooding rains and now hot and humid.

The dewpoint tonight in Watertown (per the NWS hourly observations) is 82. 82? That is sick and wrong. The weather station must be inches from the river.

[owbc]

This is the first major Wisconsin heat wave in a few years! It has been a while but we have been way below our average number of 90 degree days the past few summers. On average, Milwaukee (airport) gets 9.7 days of 90+ per summer and Madison gets 13.7. So before anyone tries to blame this on global warming, remember that the last 2 summers have been below average.

 

Hawing, I think you are correct that the dewpoint value is off in Watertown. This is a common occurrence with humidity sensors as it is actually very difficult to measure dew point accurately. We haven't see 80+ dewpoints around here since probably the 1995 heat wave (also the last time we had 100+ degree temperatures).

[adamb100]

Per my iPod Touch:

 

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8881/img0009d.png

 

First 90 degree day in 2 years?

[owbc]

Milwaukee hasn't reached 90 since September, 2007. However, Mitchell Airport is currently at 89 degrees with a light wind from the south. If the lake breeze kicks in, Milwaukee could miss 90 again.

 

Update: lake breeze now visible on radar and wind has shifted to the SE at the airport. They might have hit 90 but otherwise the streak will continue.

[Teatoe993]

Good day for some Robinade.

[bball123h]

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/79325904b392cdfea4f8ae91233833f35803f0f.jpg

 

It is pretty toasty lately.

[burniebrewer]

This weather sucks.

 

I'm on vacation this week and have outdoor activities lined up for most of the week. I'd rather just sit in the A/C.

[Gobias Industries]

It's so hot I just buzzed my head. Highly recommended.

[owbc]

Most likely a tornado will be confirmed near Edgerton/Janesville tomorrow, as several spotters saw the funnel and tree damage was reported. This was a really incredible event for a number of reasons. There were no storms in the area before or after this event and it came from a very small "airmass thunderstorm" that lasted about 30 minutes because there was no vertical wind shear. Therefore, this was likely a "landspout" tornado--meaning that it was associated with the rapid updraft of this thunderstorm and not a rotating supercell. Very cool.

[adamb100]

Per: http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/KMKE.html

 

Temperature 91.0 F (32.8 C)

 

Now the drought has ended. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[bork]

I can't believe we had gone almost 2 years without a 90 degree day.

[owbc]

That's 2 years at Mitchell Airport where the lake breeze often drops the temperature in the afternoon. I bet there were several in that time period just about everywhere else in SE Wisconsin. This would definitely still be the first real "heat wave" in a few years. We can expect a few more near 90-degree days before everything ends with a bang on Saturday evening.