Going to camping this weekend

This is a notice to my blog viewers I will not be here to post updates to the upcoming severe weather threats. I' am going on a family vacation camping on a local area camping right here in Western Wisconsin at St Croix Falls. I will provde ocasional weather condtions from the campsite! For coverage here in the area, I will post all severe weather threats before I leave, and I will have the warning map up at the top of my blog with color codes for warnings.

Summer like weekend ahead-very warm and humid with afternoon Storms, some strong possible each afternoon.

Regional weather view.

A hotter, more humid and active weather pattern will develop over the Upper Midwest, A stationary front draping across the area will cause bouts of thunderstorms to develop region wide, some of these storms could go severe at any location across the region, with the best chances being on Saturday or Sunday. Heavy rainfall is possible from these storms. Temperatures will be in the low to upper 80s across Minnesota and Wisconsin each and everyday, with 90s on Sunday, with 90s occurring in Iowa & Illinois most everyday.

Local View.

Note: This forecast replaces my forecast for Friday.

Locally we can expect the chance for thunderstorms to increase the next 3 days, along with hotter and more humid conditions to move in and stay for the weekend. A stationary front will be near the area Friday Saturday and Sunday, causing the possibility of brief pop up thunderstorms to develop. These storms will be the kind that would be brief, it will cloud up, storm, then the sun would come back out. It will not be the all day type of rains. Because of the nature of the storms, and moisture that will be around, storms at any time day or night the next 3 days could be strong, possibly low end severe, So people will want to take the time to keep an eye on the weather just in case, The chance of storms will start to decrease later Sunday. Temperatures will first start off very warm in the upper 80s on Friday and Saturday with, then hot in the low 90s on Sunday, Along with these temperatures It will be muggy all 3 days as well, with fairly warm night lows, but because it is summer and typical for this time of year, heat and humidity should not cause problems.

Friday, Partly Cloudy Very warm and humid. A chance of isolated thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80s. Friday Night, Partly Cloudy, lows in the upper 60s.

Saturday, Partly Cloudy, Very Warm and humid. Isolated thunderstorms possible through the day, some could be strong, highs in the upper 80s. Saturday Night, A chance of thunderstorms, lows in the low 70s.

Sunday, Partly Cloudy, Hot and humid, a chance of Thunderstorms, some could be strong, especially early. Highs in the upper 80s to low 90s. Sunday Night, Partly Cloudy, lows in the low 70s.

Looking Ahead

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday of next week it dries out, but temperatures will stay typical for July. Then it really starts to heat up and become more storms by Thursday the 14th through the 18th, There will be off an on thunderstorm chances, along with a possible string of 90 degree day temperatures. It cools off to typical summertime temps again by 19th and it is dry. Then July 20th has warmer conditions, and the chance for heavy storms before a sharp cold front cools things off and dries things out just in time for the 21 through the 23rd. But heat and humidity are building back west by this frame, and may be pushing east beyond this time frame.

Calm nice days ahead, Sunny with very little chances of rain.

Regional Weather View.

A calm string of days continuing for the Upper Midwest, there will be plenty of sunshine to go around with typical summer time temperatures and humidity. Only slight chances for thunderstorms remain in the forecast for parts of the region, most areas can expect dry weather

Regional Weather View.

A nice calm stretch of rainless weather is ahead, and even continuing for many areas. A high pressure system will provide us plenty of mowing opportunities the next 3 days. The only chance of rain will be Thursday, and the chance looks pretty slim even for light rain. Temperatures all 3 days will be typical summer high temps, highs will be in the low to mid 80s for highs, and lows in the low to mid 60s.

Wednesday, Sunny, Highs in the low to mid 80s. Wednesday Night, Clear skies, Lows in the low 60s.

Thursday, Sunny & Warm, highs in the low to mid 80s Thursday Night, Clear skies, lows in the low to mid 60s

Friday, Sunny & Warm, Highs in the mid 80s, Friday Night, Clear Skies, lows in the mid 60s.

Looking Ahead

The models are trending a pretty, a warmer and more humid, along with a slightly active pattern, which will start this upcoming weekend. Saturday & Sunday both with have a chance of thunderstorms. We get a little break from the warmth and humidity Tuesday and Wednesday the 12th and 13th, before a warm front brings a chance of heavy thunderstorms the 15th. Then behind that the heat and humidity really kicks in. The models show a long stretch of hot and humid weather from the 16th of July to the 21st, there will be off an on chances of thunderstorms, some heavy.

June 28th-30th Rochester,MN Trip.

Downtown Rochester,MN view from Elton Hills area

Back at the end of June I took a 3 day trip to Rochester,Minnesota for RCTC collage student testing. The testing reveled I was accepted into the Horticulture Class, and I moving there next month just before classes start. I will be moving in with my aunt who already has a house. If everything goes as planned, I will be starting a 2 year degree or diploma the 22nd of August, so my plan is to move around the 15th of August to start getting use to the area. I learned there are a few things I will have to get used to while I'm living there, like the different way of city living, like dealing with rush hour, city noises, roads, and even living in a residential area verses the wide open country I'm used too.

I spent the time that I was not testing in collage doing yard work and gardening. I get pleasure of taking care of, and planting in all the gardens in my aunts yard while I'm living there, which will really make it feel like home. My aunt brought to me a problem in her garden she had when she hired her garden done by a company, that there isn't enough color during all seasons, because some of the original plants did not survive. so I've already begun potting up some of my favorite plants from my gardens to take with me to add color. I am very happy for the opportunity to make bring my aunts Rochester yard to full blooming potential during the time I live there!

Weather while we were there was great mild temps and sunny the entire time, although it was increasingly hot and humid towards the end of my stay. My highest temperature reading from a temporary station I set up was 87.F, which was warmer then the airport, and the lowest reading was 57.F. I will be setting up a weather station in the yard, to which I'm excited to get set up to compare to begin comparing everyday weather the nearby airport.

My trip to Rochester has really made me very excited to start collage and to live in a totally new area! I look forward to covering Southeast Minnesota Weather and gardening here at my blog in the months to come!

Extreame wind damage reported in Burnett and Washburn Counties- Red Cross Responded. Spotty less severe damage in other areas, including in my area.

Shelf cloud on southern side of 1st line at my yard July 1st 2011

Many people will unfortunately spend Independence Day Weekend cleaning up after multiple waves, and lines storms that brought extremely strong winds after a very hot and steamy day. One area of storms left major damage across widespread parts of the area. An area that was especially hit hard was Burnett and Washburn counties. Significant county wide strait line winds damage was seen, damage of some sort was reported in every community in Burnett County, with some areas seeing damage so extreme that entire woods, and residential tree lots were leveled completely. Grantsburg, Trade Lake, Webster, and Minong seem to be the hardest hit communities, with reports of power outages and structural damage to homes and business. The damage was significant enough that the Red Cross responded to Burnett and Washburn Counties and after the storms hit, county officials were calling for assistance from nearby county officials to help cut down trees and clear roads.

Damage reports plotted on a map with explanation lines.

The widespread and damaging storms first started in South Dakota and moved Northeast cutting a path of severe damage across all of Minnesota before it approached Western Burnett county. At the same time, spotty cells were forming northeast of this area in Burnett county which moved north. The main squall line impacted Burnett and Northern Washburn counties, and sent a very severe winds of 70 to 80MPH, this caused widespread tree damage, especially in Trade Lake, Grantsburg, Siren, Danbury and Webster East to Minong Spooner and Trego. Some areas were hit with extreme damage. One report in Grantsburg mentioned that an entire 3.5 acer yard lost nearly all of it's trees in the storm. NWS Duluth even mentioned that it was likely there was spotty area of extreme down burst winds up to 100MPH near Grantsburg, Danbury and Webster, shown as the pink reports above. There was different cell that developed into south of the Burnett & Washburn County cells that protruded south through to Southern Polk and Barron Counties. These storms caused widespread less severe winds up to 60MPH in Milltown, St Croix Falls, Frederic and Cumberland, where lots of trees and some power lines were reported down. These are shown as the yellow reports on the map. South of there where the storm was reduced to just a shelf cloud with very strong winds and little rain caused spotty tree damage near Amery, Somserset, Clayton and areas east, These are the green reports above. The final squall line formed right along the cold front in southern Minnesota and moved across all areas pretty This squall line was less severe, but still caused very windy conditions in St Croix, Polk and Barron and Dunn counties. Some spotty damage was reported in Western St Croix County and Southern Dunn county.


Clayton + My location storm coverage.

Shelf Cloud passing over my house July 1st from 1st storm

This section of the post will focus on damage around my area. The storm that protruded south of Burnett County into Polk County effected my area and sent very strong winds ahead of the storm in a direction from the northwest to the southeast. It was signaled by a very intense and threatening looking shelf cloud that quickly passed overhead followed by strong gusty WNW winds. I estimate the winds between 40 and 45MPH at my location based on nearby damage. My gauge recorded 31MPH even behind the protection of a tree, but the number seemed to be lowered a bit because of it. Nearby Amery had a 42MPH. These winds did cause some damage around, but we were fortunate that it was just spotty tree damage in Clayton. My yard it's self escaped most damage, and only had some minor branches and leaves, one of my small new trees that took the brunt of the winds on the west side of my lawn was blown over pretty bad and had to be tied up afterwards. One thing that was interesting in my area was the temperature drop from 90.F, after a high of 99.F to 72.F in just minutes. There was really no rain to speak of in this storm only 0.09, which came from storms that came after the one with shelf cloud.





Video of the July 1st gust front winds.

In the video above very strong winds can be seen, especially near the middle of the video. As I looked back at it I was surprised at how far the small tree near the ground was bending in the winds, but was glad this fairly new tree held up.

Large branch down on a Camper on Clayton Ave.

This was a large branch which snapped off Maple and fell onto this camper, fortunately, The camper did not appear to have damage. I estimate the branch was at least 10 inches in diameter.
Large tree branch broken off 1 mile south of Clayton

This photo was taken on aunt and uncles lawn, they lost a 5 inch diameter branch off there small crab apple tree, which took out 1/3 of this tree. This was later cut off and hauled off by me after this picture was taken.

Area Damage reports from 1st significant squall line

Grantsburg, Sigificant damage, Power Out, many large 50 year old Trees Down, Roads impassible.

Grantsburg, 3.5 acer yard lost nearly every tree, including mature oaks.

5 miles W Webster Significant damage, multiple Trees Down, Roof and siding damage.

Trade Lake, Numerous trees down, boats flipped and blown onto shore.

Webb Lake, Many large trees down.

Danbury, Significant Damage, Trees blown down falling onto cars and homes.

1 mile W Danbury, Intense downburst winds-Entire Woods flattened

5 miles W Amery 68MPH Wind gust

Clayton, Large 10 inch diameter branch fallen onto camper in town

1 mile S Clayton, 5 inch diameter branch down

Milltown, Wind Damage.

Polk County Report of trees and powerlines down in the Southeastern part of the county.

Barron County Report of Trees and powerlines down in the southern part of the county.

Cumberland 62MPH wind gust.

Spooner, Large billboard blown down.

Minong, Roof blown off business.

Damage reports from second wave.

Somserset, Isolated trees down.

Eau Galle Tree down.

Area Red Cross locations & county travel information post.

This is a post to provide as much information as possible to for people wondering about damage in there own areas or there famlies areas.

Burnett and Washburn counties

Parts of the are were hit very hard with stait line wind damage last night. The hardest hit areas is Burnett County and Washburn county. it is estimated that 80MPH winds may have blown through much of these areas from strait lines winds. I have been seeing reports of major damage including, in some areas entire woods flattend, sigificant structual damage and proporty lost, espessailly in Siren, Danbury, Grantsburg, Webster and Minong. This is proably some the worst damage Burnett and Washburn Counties has seen in very many years. Travel in these counties is very difficult at this time state highways should be ok, but side roads are impassible due to fallen trees. Police from all local area counties have responed to Burnett County to help clean up.

The Red Cross and help centers have been set up in Burnett County and can be found at the following locations

In Burnett County

Grantsburg Middle School

Blaine Township Hall

In Washburn County

Spooner Fire Hall

Chicog Fire Hall

Polk and Barron Counties

Damage from this storm continued south into parts of Polk and Barron Counties. Hardest hit areas here are the Northwestern parts of both counties, Milltown, Frederic, Calm Falls to Cumberland have reports of trees or powerlines down, and 60+MPH wind reports have been reported in St Croix Falls and west of Amery. Spotty reports of much less widespread damage, such as isolated trees or power lines down have also been reported in Clayton and other areas of southern Polk and Barron Counties, but People who are in Southeastern Polk, Southern Barron, as well as St Croix and Dunn counties were spared of the most sigificant damage.

St Croix and Dunn Counties

There was very little damage here, but there was some spotty reports of trees down in Northwestern St Croix County at Somerset and southern Dunn County Eau Galle.

July 1st Severe Storm Risk Today/Tonight.

Image from SPC

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman,OK has issued a Slight Risk For severe thunderstorms across a part of the Upper Midwest, including all of the local 6 county area.

Even though there is a strong cap, and excessive heat entrenched across the local area, models continue to show Thunderstorms developing along a cold front that will slice into this hot and very rich air. Because of this I put faith into the SPC area, and chance for developing storms due to consistency in the models. Thunderstorms, if they develop will become explosive and severe very quickly. The best chance for severe storms will be after 5pm, and the biggest threats will be torrential rain, very large hail and strait line winds. As well as a threat for tornado's. People should keep in mind there is a threat for severe storms today.