What a fitting way to finish Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Awareness Week last Friday. A powerful storm system created 3 rounds of thunderstorms throughout the day that brought 2-3” of rain, frequent lightning, gusty winds and up to golf ball size hail. After the second round of downpours that occurred midday, the sky cleared out and cooked up the atmosphere. When a powerful storm system and a threat of thunderstorms is in the forecast, the last thing you want is sunshine. It makes the atmosphere very unstable and increases the potential for severe thunderstorms with hail and tornadoes. Clouds help keep the atmosphere more settled and less volatile.

Temperatures warmed into the upper 70s and it was very muggy. When the cold front arrived in the late afternoon, the 3^rd round of storms dropped hail, torrential rain and a tornado in Columbia County near Wyocena. The F1 tornado was on the ground for 4.5 miles, was about 60 yards wide and had 100mph winds. This was a perfect example of an average Wisconsin tornado. Meanwhile, Minnesota was on the cold side of the storm with a blizzard and up to 15” of snow.

After a chilly and windy weekend, we stay in the 40s for highs the next few days with a chance of a rain snow mix today. No accumulation is expected, but what happened to spring? That’s right, this is spring in Wisconsin . As of 9am Monday morning, Eau Claire has already received 4-7 inches of snow.