Post by KNOWTHIS on Jan 9, 2007 1:11:31 GMT -5
www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/16357447.htm
Wisconsin sets record for severe weather
State pummeled by snow, floods, heat
BY TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press
2006 IN REVIEW
Wisconsin sets record for severe weather
State pummeled by snow, floods, heat
BY TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press
2006 IN REVIEW
MADISON — Tornadoes. Hail. Floods. A plague of locusts, anyone?
Wisconsin's dysfunctional relationship with the weather continued in 2006. The state saw only about a dozen tornadoes, down dramatically from 2005, but Mother Nature still was busy bashing buildings, crumpling crops — and killing at least a handful of people.
"Deceptively busy," said Rusty Kapela, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Milwaukee/Sullivan office, which saw a record number of 413 severe weather events in 2006 ranging from severe thunderstorms to flash floods. That shattered the station's record of 240 events set in 2005.
Wisconsin saw 13 tornadoes in 2006, with all but one in the southern half of the state. One twister, an F1 (on a scale of F0 to F5) that struck Hartford in Washington County, left one person injured and caused more than $4 million in damage. But relatively speaking, Kapela said, the tornadoes were weak. The state saw only two F1s; the rest were F0s.
Still, this year was full of weather adventures. They began Feb. 15, when a blizzard socked the state. Central and southern Wisconsin saw accumulations ranging from 6 inches to 14 inches. Sheboygan and Saukville got 14 inches, the highest total in the state.
On March 12, another winter storm packing 35 mph winds pummeled northern Wisconsin, dumping up to 20 inches of snow in some areas. The Lake Superior shoreline got hit even harder; the area from Mellen to Hurley got 25 to 32 inches.
A month later, on April 13, three hailstorms combined to create the costliest storm day in Wisconsin history, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management. Jefferson County saw hail up to 4.25 inches in diameter. A storm just southwest of Hilbert in Calumet County produced a downburst of 95 to 100 mph winds. The combined damage estimates topped $160 million statewide.
Northern Wisconsin spent the year battling another drought. Farmers in 12 counties have qualified for about $575,000 in federal grants to offset pasture and forage to feed livestock lost in the drought, said state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection spokeswoman Jane Larson. So far the state has seen 151 applications, Larson said.
Randy Cook, director of Barron County's U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency, said that county usually produces about 130 bushels of corn per acre. Rain at the end of July helped, he said, but the drought still caused the county's production to drop into the 70-bushel range.
"It got knee-high and just browned up," Cook said.
Fred Sutherland, 64, farms about 900 acres just south of Cumberland in Barron County. The drought forced him to absorb a 25 percent to 30 percent loss on his soybeans and a 15 to 20 percent loss on his corn. If not for some rain that fell at the end of July, he may have lost everything.
The year was "pretty stressful, because from day to day we weren't sure we were going to get a crop," Sutherland said.
The weather took its toll in lives, too.
Six-year-old Lydia Martin of Wilmette, Ill., died July 20 when a severe storm struck Nelson Dewey State Park, where she was camping with her parents. The storm knocked part of a tree onto her tent.
On July 24, Curtis A. Meyer of Antigo, 24, died after lightning struck a tree near him. Police said the current traveled into his body.
A heat wave that immersed Wisconsin in temperatures approaching 100 degrees contributed to three deaths in Milwaukee between July 17 and Aug. 2, according to the National Weather Service.
A July 27 downpour that dropped up to 5 inches on parts of southern Wisconsin caused flash floods in the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus area, damaging dozens of buildings. The rain also caused flooding in and around Waukesha.
A Dec. 1 snowstorm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of southeastern and east-central Wisconsin. The Kenosha U.S. Coast Guard station recorded 17 inches. Blizzard conditions — including 40-mph winds, thunder and lightning — engulfed the Lake Michigan shoreline, slicing visibility to a quarter-mile or less.
Three days before Christmas, half a foot of wet, heavy snow blanketed north-central Wisconsin, knocking down tree limbs and power lines and cutting off electricity to some 30,000 customers of Wisconsin Public Service Corp., many of them in Stevens Point, Wausau and Merrill. Some didn't get power back until Christmas Day.
The outlook for 2007 is far from rosy. Parched northwestern Wisconsin has little snow cover, meaning the moisture-starved area could be ripe for forest fires in the spring, Kapela said.
"We're sitting on explosive situation if we don't get precipitation," he said.
And more lousy weather is a given in Wisconsin.
"We will see a tornado in Wisconsin. We will see somebody hitting 100 degrees. We will have some parts of Wisconsin having drought effects. We will see some parts with flooding," Kapela said. "Just luck of the draw."
Wisconsin's dysfunctional relationship with the weather continued in 2006. The state saw only about a dozen tornadoes, down dramatically from 2005, but Mother Nature still was busy bashing buildings, crumpling crops — and killing at least a handful of people.
"Deceptively busy," said Rusty Kapela, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Milwaukee/Sullivan office, which saw a record number of 413 severe weather events in 2006 ranging from severe thunderstorms to flash floods. That shattered the station's record of 240 events set in 2005.
Wisconsin saw 13 tornadoes in 2006, with all but one in the southern half of the state. One twister, an F1 (on a scale of F0 to F5) that struck Hartford in Washington County, left one person injured and caused more than $4 million in damage. But relatively speaking, Kapela said, the tornadoes were weak. The state saw only two F1s; the rest were F0s.
Still, this year was full of weather adventures. They began Feb. 15, when a blizzard socked the state. Central and southern Wisconsin saw accumulations ranging from 6 inches to 14 inches. Sheboygan and Saukville got 14 inches, the highest total in the state.
On March 12, another winter storm packing 35 mph winds pummeled northern Wisconsin, dumping up to 20 inches of snow in some areas. The Lake Superior shoreline got hit even harder; the area from Mellen to Hurley got 25 to 32 inches.
A month later, on April 13, three hailstorms combined to create the costliest storm day in Wisconsin history, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management. Jefferson County saw hail up to 4.25 inches in diameter. A storm just southwest of Hilbert in Calumet County produced a downburst of 95 to 100 mph winds. The combined damage estimates topped $160 million statewide.
Northern Wisconsin spent the year battling another drought. Farmers in 12 counties have qualified for about $575,000 in federal grants to offset pasture and forage to feed livestock lost in the drought, said state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection spokeswoman Jane Larson. So far the state has seen 151 applications, Larson said.
Randy Cook, director of Barron County's U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency, said that county usually produces about 130 bushels of corn per acre. Rain at the end of July helped, he said, but the drought still caused the county's production to drop into the 70-bushel range.
"It got knee-high and just browned up," Cook said.
Fred Sutherland, 64, farms about 900 acres just south of Cumberland in Barron County. The drought forced him to absorb a 25 percent to 30 percent loss on his soybeans and a 15 to 20 percent loss on his corn. If not for some rain that fell at the end of July, he may have lost everything.
The year was "pretty stressful, because from day to day we weren't sure we were going to get a crop," Sutherland said.
The weather took its toll in lives, too.
Six-year-old Lydia Martin of Wilmette, Ill., died July 20 when a severe storm struck Nelson Dewey State Park, where she was camping with her parents. The storm knocked part of a tree onto her tent.
On July 24, Curtis A. Meyer of Antigo, 24, died after lightning struck a tree near him. Police said the current traveled into his body.
A heat wave that immersed Wisconsin in temperatures approaching 100 degrees contributed to three deaths in Milwaukee between July 17 and Aug. 2, according to the National Weather Service.
A July 27 downpour that dropped up to 5 inches on parts of southern Wisconsin caused flash floods in the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus area, damaging dozens of buildings. The rain also caused flooding in and around Waukesha.
A Dec. 1 snowstorm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of southeastern and east-central Wisconsin. The Kenosha U.S. Coast Guard station recorded 17 inches. Blizzard conditions — including 40-mph winds, thunder and lightning — engulfed the Lake Michigan shoreline, slicing visibility to a quarter-mile or less.
Three days before Christmas, half a foot of wet, heavy snow blanketed north-central Wisconsin, knocking down tree limbs and power lines and cutting off electricity to some 30,000 customers of Wisconsin Public Service Corp., many of them in Stevens Point, Wausau and Merrill. Some didn't get power back until Christmas Day.
The outlook for 2007 is far from rosy. Parched northwestern Wisconsin has little snow cover, meaning the moisture-starved area could be ripe for forest fires in the spring, Kapela said.
"We're sitting on explosive situation if we don't get precipitation," he said.
And more lousy weather is a given in Wisconsin.
"We will see a tornado in Wisconsin. We will see somebody hitting 100 degrees. We will have some parts of Wisconsin having drought effects. We will see some parts with flooding," Kapela said. "Just luck of the draw."