Storm of Historic Proportion hits Upper Midwest. Widespread 45-55PM winds cause damage and power outages across Western Wisconsin. Final Post.

Image from NWS Duluth

A Historically strong weather system hit the Upper Midwest Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving widespread damage from high winds across many states. Severe Storms pounded Illinois, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana and Lower Michigan. While on the Northwest side Blizzard conditions were reported in North Dakota, and places in Minnesota near Duluth pick up as much as 8 inches of snow! Elsewhere, South Dakota, Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan endured very high damaging winds. This storm broke the record for the lowest barometric pressure reading in the State of Wisconsin, and all of the central Untied States region. This storm had a pressure so low, it can be compared to a Category 3 hurricane according to the NWS!

Effects in Western Wisconsin

Weeping Willow in the very strong winds Wednesday October 27th

This storm system hit Western Wisconsin quite hard with Very strong winds, over an inch of rain and the 1st snow of the season. Winds over 45MPH were reported from every weather station in the 6 county area, causing widespread tree damage and power outages. The strongest winds hit Tuesday afternoon and Night, and blew well over 50MPH, some places recorded winds as high as near 60MPH, knocking down trees and blowing roads. The wind quickly became a major problem by Tuesday around 8PM. 6 inch diameter tree branches were reported down near Rice Lake, and Multiple trees were reported down in and around Menomonie. Driving around the area the day afterwards reveled widespread tree and structural damage, I saw mature sized Spruce trees which had been standing for nearly 100 years uprooted, some which had fallen and damaged homes. Falling trees and tree branches into power lines took power out to several communities across the area. Some places were without electricity for as long as 15 hours! Power outages were likely scattered through the entire area, but reported power outages were seen in Cumberland, Clayton and Somerset, and at one point the entire Clayton area was without power.

Effects in my yard and around Clayton.



Many Large tree branches covering the Backyard with yardstick for measurement October 27th

This storm system is one I will likely remember for the rest of my life. This was the strongest storm system I've ever seen and experienced. I could tell by the consistency of the NWS and forecast models this storm would be a big one. They had been showing the storm more then a week in advance, but, Monday I was very surprised when the NWS in the Twin Cities issued a high wind warning for Western Wisconsin, because I've never seen that type of warning issued for this part of the country. I began preparations for this storm by putting up an extra wind gauge in case my main one failed, and leaving things like trash cans tied up.

Strong winds ripped leaves and blasted them to the sides of the house.

Tuesday started off breezy and rainy with temps in the 50s. There wasn't a significant amount of wind to be found, However shortly after I got home from work at 2PM, the winds really began to crank up.


Large branch covering the picnic table early in the storm system, photo taken with my Cell phone Oct 26th.


Around 3PM I was sitting in the house and heard the wind howl through the trees, and felt the house shake from a strong gust of wind. I ran up to check the wind gauge and it said 44MPH, I saw a large branch down in the yard, large enough to cover the entire picnic table shown above. I also noticed that leaves and small twigs were plastered to the sides of the house, windows and doors. This was the start of the worse winds. By 5PM rain ended for awhile after getting an inch, and Sustained Winds were howling at 30-35MPH, our house was shaking constantly, and the sounds of metal clanking, and trees howling drowned out all the sounds inside our house and it was all I could hear most of the night.

Section of siding from our tin shed flew and landed.

Around 6, I watched a section of siding blow off the shed, and by then tree branches, the size of the one I compared to our picnic table earlier were breaking out and flying across the lawn one after another. At around 8 the lights totally went off at my place for a short time, shortly afterwards my uncle called and said his just shut completely off and staid off, I was surprised when he tol me that residents along Lake Magnor had been without power for 2 hours. After I hung up the phone, I called up another fiend in Minnesota to see how he was holding out. While on the phone I went to check if I could see lights on west of me through an upstairs window, and while I was looking I could feel the winds pushing on the window. I looked and every block west of me was dark, while lights north of me were still on. Shortly after I saw very large power flashes in the direction of Lake Magnor, I never seen anything like it before, I was so stunned by what I was seeing that, I yelled to my dad downstairs to look. I could see a huge fire-ember orange colored glow, large enough that light from it reflected off the low cloud deck. It turned out what I saw was a tree fell onto the power line and it was sparking balls of fire and a transformer exploded west of Lake Magnor.
Wind gauge stand blown over.

My weather equipment took a hit in this storm. After reporting the NWS about the power outages, I was walking around the house looking out the windows for damage when I heard the winds howl from a strong gust and a loud crash against the roof, My wind gauge had blown down. I went up to check on it and my gauge spinning outside my brothers window seen above. It landed in the exact right spot that it didn't get broken because it was inches from hitting the 1st story roof below, I was surprised it blew over even after all the wind earlier in the day and all the summer storms we had. Luckily I had a second wind gauge I put so there were no laps in between readings. I did manage to get on the roof even in the howling winds and take the gauge off the extra long pole back up on a shorter pole. About 30 minutes later my gauge reported 46MPH wind gust from the WSW. When I went to sleep at 12AM the winds were still howling outside.

Light snow on the morning of the 27th

I woke up the next morning at 9AM to see light snow flying and covering the ground with a temp of 33.F, I got 0.25" of snow which was the first snow, and snow accumulation of the season. At 10AM I figured out the Lake Magnor was still without power so I got off work for an hour until power was finally restored after it had been out for 15 hours. Me and other workers in the kitchen worked with coats on for the 1st hour because of how chilly it was in the restaurant and we had to stumble across generators and cords that were used to keep the food cool while the power was out.

Clematis Trellis blown partially over.

This storm brought the longest durations very strong winds I've ever seen, and the strongest sustained winds. The sustained winds were 30MPH at times. Winds gusted over 30MPH from 12PM Tuesday through 5PM Wednesday. My highest wind gust Tuesday was 46MPH and Wednesday 41MPH, The WSW reading of 46MPH on my wind gauge tied the strongest wind gust I ever measured. My total rain and snow water measured to 1.57" from this storm.

Weeping Willow branches which flew and got stuck in our ash tree Oct. 27th.

Our Weeping Willow really suffered in this system, I've never seen this many branches at this size blown off this tree at once before. 30% of the branches, large and small were torn off and were scattered across the yard. Some blew completely across the backyard to where my garden is, some even blew completely over the house into the front yard. Our yard endured the worse damage from winds I've seen in at least 9 years.

This is a video I took of one of the strongest wind gusts. Near the middle of this video, my wind gauge recorded 45MPH from that gust.

Wind Gusts reported Tuesday.

This chart of wind gust explains how windy it really was. It's amazing how widespread these winds were! The highest wind gust was reported from Amery at 56MPH the lowest wind gust, if you can call it low! was 43MPH from Minong.

Damage reports: Damage was widespread through out then entire area, Everyone in the area was effected by this storm one way or another, but not all accounts of damage was reported. The damage was so widespread and severe, that if all damage was reported, the list of reports would be far too many reports to cover on this post! The following list is a list of reports that were sent in to the National Weather Service or is damage I've seen.

Menomonie Trees down around area.

Rice Lake 6 inch diameter branches down.

Clayton Multiple branches down, siding torn off shed, Power out to southern Clayton and Lake Magnor Residents.

Minong Trees down near Douglas county line.

Cameron Large Tree Down

3 Miles NE of Dallas Tree down

This was one heck of a record breaking storm that effected the entire Upper Midwest, and most of the Untied States. Many local and regional National Weather Service offices and fellow bloggers have posted special reports for this historical event. This is one storm system that will be in the record books forever for the centreal U.S! Below is a list of links to Local NWS offices and bloggers who have posted on this record breaking storm.

OSNW3 blog-Oshkosh,WI area

Tims weather blog-Duluth,MN area

NWS Duluth Story -Duluth,MN

NWS Twin Cities Story -Channhassen,MN

NWS La Crosse Story -La Crosse,WI