Monday, July 07, 2008

Severe Thunderstorm Watch

11:43pm - We're going to stop our live chat now. Storm reports were fairly sporadic. Trees/powerlines down. Adam will have more information in the morning. Have a good night!

8:07pm - We took a direct hit from a lightning strike within the past five minutes. Our over-the-air signal has been affected while those watching on cable or satellite should be okay. We are working to rectify the problem.

7:35pm - A new Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for most of Eastern Iowa and Northwestern Illinois. Counties included in this watch include Stephenson, Jo Daviess, Carroll, and Whiteside until midnight. The squall line will produce torrential rains, brief damaging winds and very frequent lightning.

As expected a storm watch has been issued for Southern Wisconsin in anticipation of the storms across NE Iowa moving east. Counties within this watch include Green, Rock, and Walworth until 11pm. I'm still going to be watching around the Quad Cities for future development and possible severe. Remember, you don't have to be in the watch to have severe weather. It's possible anywhere this evening/overnight and a new watch may be posted for Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois this evening.

As far as outdoor plans, go ahead with them but be sure to watch for threatening skies and have a safe place picked out should you need to head for shelter.

13 comments:

tony said...

Eric, I know I have somehow gotten to the page before, but how do you get to the page where they would discuss possible watches being issued.

Eric Sorensen said...

go to spc.noaa.gov and then click on "mesoscale discussions"

tony said...

ok, thank you buddy.

tony said...

What are the odds of a WW being posted for us. Will the storms end up weakening to the point where one wont be needed.

tony said...

I knwo it is pretty dark out here at my house from the storm going thru western winnebago county and I am hearing thunder. Eric do u think that squall line will hold together to hit us later.

WI Weather Buff said...

Thought I heard some very faint rumbles of thunder off in the distance - very faint, very distant.

Are you guys having some transmitter issues? I'm not getting Ch 13 in on my rabbit ears (usually not a problem).

tony said...

We have alot of lightning out to the west of my house, i dont know i will get hit or not

tony said...

We ahve a very impressive black cloud coing over us, looks liek a super cell like cloud

Scott said...

Eric While watching the nexrad radar i've noticed the storm cells are tagged K0 T3 etc. Dose this have anything to do with where the storm is going or how stong it is?

WI Weather Buff said...

Looking S from just west of Beloit, there are some very impressive scud clouds. I am 100% sure those are scud clouds, not something more ominous. Winds and lightning definitely picking up.

WI Weather Buff,
Trained Spotter

Justin Gehrts said...

Scott - the Weather Service radar software uses algorithms to tag/identify thunderstorms. They get identified by a letter/number combo... I don't believe it has anything to do with movement or intensity.

WI Weather Buff said...

Storm already past Beloit, no rain to speak of. We could actually use some rain, believe it or not, even though the Rock River is still flooded here (but going down). Many lawns are starting to look kind of brown (if they're not flooded) including mine.

Scott said...

Thanks Justin