No Runny Eggs

Revisions/extensions (11:30 pm 6/17/2008): All of the forecasts quoted were pulled up from the various entities’ websites between 10:55 pm and 11:05 pm while I was getting wet.

Weather forecast for the rest of tonight from the National Weather Service…

Partly cloudy, with a low around 54. Northwest wind around 5 mph.

Weather forecast from The Weather Channel…

Partly cloudy. Low around 55F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Precip: 20%

Weather forecast from WTMJ (both TV/DT-Channel 4 and AM)…

Mostly clear and mild. Low: 53. Wind: WNW 5-10 MPH.

Weather forecast from WISN-TV/DT (Channel 12)…

Partly Cloudy and Cool. Low: 53. Wind: NW 5-10.

Weather forecast from WDJT-TV/DT (Channel 58)…

Clouds thin out tonight with overnight lows, cool again, dropping into the low to mid 50’s and a light west to northwest wind.

Radar picture of my neck of the woods at 11:08 pm 6/17/2008 (courtesy Weather Underground)…

And as I typed this up, the shower passed over and the NWS issued a short-term forecast (at 11:07 just as the shower popped up)…

Scattered showers have rapidly developed over southern Dodge…northeast Jefferson…and central Milwaukee County. These showers are capable of producing heavy downpours as they push southeast around 40 mph.

Some cities impacted by these showers through midnight include Sullivan…Mukwonago…Oak Creek….and Racine.

There is a small scale cold front over eastern Fond Du Lac…Washington…and Milwaukee counties that is pushing southwest around 15 mph. Look for gusty northeast winds and temperatures falling into the lower 50s rapidly with the passage of the front. The front should pass through Waukesha and Kenosha by midnight.

I was unable to find an overnight forecast from WITI-TV/DT (Channel 6); they had already transtioned their website’s forecast to tomrrow. Note the only entity that even raised the possibility of rain was The Weather Channel, and then they deemed the chance of rain so slight that it didn’t merit an actual mention in the forecast.

And people wonder why I don’t buy Gorebal “Warming” or whatever the acolytes are calling the anti-American/anti-capitalist line of bullshit nowadays. They can’t even get the fucking forecast for the next 3 hours right.

Constant thunder, but other than that, nothing yet…

TORNADO WARNING
WIC079-122000-
/O.NEW.KMKX.TO.W.0028.080612T1936Z-080612T2000Z/

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
236 PM CDT THU JUN 12 2008

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR…
SOUTHERN MILWAUKEE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN…

* UNTIL 300 PM CDT

* AT 233 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO NEAR FRANKLIN…
MOVING NORTHEAST AT 39 MPH.

* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR…
MILWAUKEE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT…CUDAHY…SOUTH MILWAUKEE AND WEST
MILWAUKEE BY 245 PM CDT…
ST. FRANCIS…MILWAUKEE HOAN BRIDGE AND DOWNTOWN MILWAUKEE BY 250
PM CDT…

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM CDT THURSDAY EVENING
FOR SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN.

LAT…LON 4284 8804 4285 8805 4298 8805 4308 8785
4306 8784 4303 8787 4300 8786 4298 8782
4291 8782
TIME…MOT…LOC 1936Z 239DEG 34KT 4291 8800

$$

BORGHOFF

R&E (2:48 pm 6/12/2008) - Storm passing north. Things got real quiet, almost clear to the southwest. Weather Underground isn’t showing a vortex signature.

R&E part 2 (2:55 pm 6/12/2008) - That was close. The warning’s cancelled, but the cancellation message included something ominous - trained spotters observed a rotating wall cloud about 1.5 miles west of the airport. That would be too close to comfort.

As of 7 am this morning, there are only two roads closed in Oak Creek with either flooding or flood-related damage:

- E. County Line Rd. between 10th Ave. and Nicholson Rd.
- E. Drexel Ave. between Clement Ave. and Quincy Ave. (crews were working on repairing the damage a bit before 7).

Since 1-3 inches of rain is in the forecast for today and tomorrow, expect some roads that were closed and reopened to be closed again.

Doug Seymour, the Director of Community Development, just released an update:

Oak Creek Storm Response Update

The state of emergency declared by Mayor Bolender, Saturday, June 7th remains in effect in response to flooding that has occurred in the City of Oak Creek.

As of Wednesday, June 11th at 12:30 p.m. the only road that remained closed due to flooding was South Pennsylvania Avenue from Oakwood Road to STH 100.

East Drexel Avenue between Clement Avenue and Quincy Avenue is closed until further notice because of road damage due to the flooding.

Future road closure information will be updated at the City of Oak Creek website. (www.oakcreekwi.org).

It is strongly advised that people, especially children should avoid creeks, flooded areas, ditches and areas of standing water, as they represent potentially dangerous situations.

Please contact the City of Oak Creek Emergency Operations non-emergency line at (414) 766-6600 if you have experienced flooding damage or if you have other, non-emergency questions relating to this event.

Additional information and resources are available on the City’s website at www.oakcreekwi.org

The City of Oak Creek Streets Department will be having a special curb-side pick-up for flood damaged items. Please contact (414) 570-5682 to request this service.

Flood clean up kits are available for pick up at Oak Creek Fire Station No. 1 (240 East Puetz Road) and at Fire Station No. 3 (7000 South 6th Street).

For more information please contact Doug Seymour, Public Information Officer for the City of Oak Creek, at (414) 768-6526 or dseymour@oakcreekwi.org.

News Release By Authority Of:

_______________________________________________
Doug Seymour, Public Information Officer on behalf of Dick Bolender

###

In addition, the recycling center at 720 W. Puetz Rd. will have extended hours on Friday, and will be open from 8 am until 8 pm.

Thanks for the fast response. Hopefully the rains in the forecast for tomorrow will hold off.

Per JSOnline’s DayWatch, 27th Street between Elm Rd. and I-94 has been reopened. Earlier, I had noted that the barricades in the southbound lanes but not the northbound lanes just south of Elm had been moved aside, and that the “road closed ahead” signs at 27th and Ryan were still up.

However, the DOT still lists the off-ramp from north/westbound I-94 to 27th as closed. That ramp is, if memory serves, lower than the rest of the area, so it may well still be flooded.

I also have a request in to Oak Creek for an updated list of closures in the city. Their website hasn’t been updated yet today, but other than that bit of slowness, they’ve been quite good at providing information.

Hopefully the National Weather Service is going to be wrong about a fresh round of heavy-rainfall storms coming in tomorrow.

Most of the east-west routes are now open, but most of the north-south routes are still closed. What is still closed:

- E. County Line Rd. between 10th Ave and Nicholson Rd.
- S. Pennsylvania Ave. between Ryan Rd. and Oakwood Rd.
- S. Nicholson Rd. between County Line Rd. and Vista Dr. in Caledonia (the first barricade is now at Oakwood; no barricade at Elm halfway between Oakwood and County Line; I expect it to reopen once Caledonia cleans up the road just south of County Line)
- S. Howell Ave (STH 38) between Oakwood Rd. and Caddy Ln. in Caledonia
- S. 27th St (STH 241) between Elm Rd. and I-94 (includes the I-94-to-27th off-ramp and the west frontage road in Racine County, but not 8 Mile Rd./County Line Rd.; somebody moved the barricades from the southbound lanes but not the northbound lanes at Elm; I expect it to officially reopen sometime today)

Roads closed yesterday that are now open:

- E. Forest Hill Ave. between Pennsylvania Ave. and Shepard Ave.
- E. Ryan Rd. between Pennsylvania Ave. and Nicholson Rd.
- E. Oakwood Rd. between John Aron Dr. and Redwood Ln.
- E. Elm Rd. between 10th Ave. and Nicholson Rd.
- S. 13th St. between Oakwood Rd. and the Milwaukee/Racine county line.

The tour didn’t take as long today because a couple of streets reopened, but there are still significant closures in Oak Creek due to flooding:

- S. Nicholson Rd. at County Line Rd. going south into Caledonia and Vista Dr.
- S. Howell Ave. (STH 38) at Oakwood Rd. (yesterday, the barricades were at Elm) going south into Caledonia and Caddy Ln.
- S. 13th St at Oakwood Rd. (yesterday, the barricades were at the Milwaukee/Racine county line) going south into Caledonia and 7 1/2 Mile Rd.
- S. 27th St. south of Elm Rd. to I-94 (again, this includes the north/westbound I-94 off-ramp).
- S. Pennsylvania Ave. between Puetz Rd. and Oakwood Rd. (if there is no additional rain, I expect the city will reopen the stretch between Puetz and Ryan Rd.)
- E. Ryan Rd. between Pennsylvania Ave. and Nicholson Ave. (the dead-end west of Nicholson is now open, as is the stretch between 15th Ave. and Pennsylvania, though the latter is effectively a dead-end at Pennsylvania).
- E. Oakwood Rd. between John Aron Dr. and Redwood Ln. (a bit further west than yesterday)
- E. Elm Rd. between 10th Ave. and Nicholson Rd.
- E. County Line Rd. between 10th Ave. and Nicholson Rd.

I didn’t take my camera, so I can’t show you the red pickup that is now visible in the middle of the swollen Root River on 27th St.

I just got back from a two-hour tour of town after a weekend that saw 8.5 inches of rain at the MMSD plant at 5th Ave. and Puetz Rd and 7 inches at the bunker, and the following major roads are closed:

- E. Puetz Rd. between Maize Dr. and Pennsylvania Ave.
- S. Pennsylvania Ave. between Puetz Rd. and Oakwood Rd.
- E. Forest Hill Ave. between Shepard Ave. and Pennsylvania Ave.
- E. Ryan Rd. (the old Ryan, not the new Hwy. 100) between 15th Ave. and the dead-end west of Nicholson Ave.
- S. 15th Ave. between Ryan and State Hwy. 100
- S. Nicholson Rd. between Puetz Rd. and State Hwy 100, and again at County Line Rd going south into Caledonia.
- E. County Line Rd. between 10th Ave. and Nicholson Rd. (note; Caledonia still has a barricade eastbound at 10th Ave., closing eastbound between there and Chicago Rd.)
- E. Elm Rd. between 10th Ave. and Nicholson Rd.
- S. Howell Ave (State Highway 38) at Elm Rd. going south into Caledonia (presumably 7 1/2 Mile Rd.)
- S. 13th St. at the Milwaukee/Racine county line going south into Caledonia
- S. 27th St. (State Highway 241) south of Elm to I-94 (this includes the off-ramp from north/westbound I-94 to 27th St.)
- W. Drexel Ave. between 13th St. and 27th St.

In addition, E. Drexel Ave. at and just east of Clement Ave. and S. Shepard Ave. just north of Ryan Rd. had significant standing water as of 6:00 am to 6:30 am, but were still passable (unless one is driving a Corvette).

Mayor Dick Bolender conducted an interview with WTMJ-AM this morning, and WTMJ was kind enough to put up a podcast (even if they misspelled the mayor’s name). Even though he had 5 inches of water in his basement, he was out there helping to put up barricades.

On a personal note, I got extremely lucky with nothing more than a bit of seepage from a downspout that got disconnected in the height of the storm.

Via JSOnline’s DayWatch, the mayor has declared a state of emergency here in Oak Creek due to significant flooding. The roads that are currently closed are:

- W. Drexel Avenue from 13th St. to 27th St.
- E. Forest Hill Ave. from Shepard Ave. to Pennsylvania Ave.
- E. Oakwood Rd. from Pennsylvania to John Aaron Dr.
- S. 100th (W. Ryan Rd.) from Howell Ave. to 13th St.
- S. Nicholson Rd. from Puetz Rd. to 100th.
- S. Pennsylvania Ave. from Puertz Rd. to Oakwood Rd.
- S. Shepard Ave. from S. 100th to Centennial Dr.

I expect more closures to happen with the next rounds of storms; the ground is oversaturated. As the National Weather Service says, “Turn around, don’t drown”.

Tornado sirens going off again. This time, it’s aiming north of the bunker and at both my sisters’ places.

I’ve been updating the Twitter; that’s faster than updating this.

Getting thunder now, and it’s pretty dark.

Revisions/extensions (7:32 pm 6/7/2008) - Now it’s the flood. Got back from the rural property (burgers and brats by the older sister there), lots of streets flooded. Drexel and Rawson both under the tracks between 6th and 13th, 6th north of Marquette (which will come as a shock to those from the east trying to avoid the Rawson flood), flowing water on my street in the subdivision (and I’m at the high end), water to the top of the curb at the other end.

Dan Deibert has some wicked video from and a pic of a 2″ hailstone that fell in his neck of the woods (western Waukesha). Hope everybody’s making it through this.

Update: 9:56AM - link fixed - Shoebox

And this one is a no-shitter…

TORNADO WARNING
WIC079-133-062045-
/O.NEW.KMKX.TO.W.0012.080606T2003Z-080606T2045Z/

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
303 PM CDT FRI JUN 6 2008

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR…
SOUTHERN MILWAUKEE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN…
FAR SOUTHEASTERN WAUKESHA COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN…

* UNTIL 345 PM CDT

* AT 300 PM CDT…LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO 5 MILES
SOUTHEAST OF WATERFORD NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 20 AND
BRITTON ROAD IN RACINE COUNTY…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 54 MPH.

* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR…
FRANKLIN BY 315 PM CDT…
OAK CREEK AND SOUTH MILWAUKEE BY 320 PM CDT…
CUDAHY…MILWAUKEE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND ST. FRANCIS BY 325 PM
CDT…

WHEN A TORNADO WARNING IS ISSUED…IT MEANS THAT STRONG ROTATION HAS
BEEN DETECTED IN THE STORM OR A TORNADO HAS BEEN SIGHTED. IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS DANGEROUS STORM…SEEK A STURDY SHELTER. IF YOU
EXPERIENCE SIGNIFICANT WIND DAMAGE…LARGE HAIL OR TORNADOES…PLEASE
RELAY THAT INFORMATION TO 911.

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 600 PM CDT FRIDAY EVENING FOR
SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN.

LAT…LON 4284 8781 4284 8830 4291 8821 4298 8806
4308 8785 4307 8784 4303 8787 4300 8786
4298 8782
TIME…MOT…LOC 2003Z 232DEG 47KT 4274 8812

$$

BORGHOFF

I’ve got a partial view of the southwest quadrant of the bunker, and I’ve got the laptop. This one’s going to be close!

R&E (3:14 pm 6/6/2008) - Was oddly calm, but now there’s a bit of a breeze again and it’s starting to rain. No real oddity though.

R&E part 2 (3:18 pm 6/6/2008) - Moved to the widest-view southwest window. Raining pretty good, and now the NWS says it’s passing south and now radar-indicated.

R&E part 3 (3:29 pm 6/6/2008) - If I weren’t listening to Ed Morrissey, I’d be chasing. There was a funnel cloud at Hwy K and I-94 15 minutes ago, which is sufficiently south of the bunker. It’s now raining pretty good, and there’s a bit of thunder. Nothing unusual in my little corner of the world though.

The Winter That Won’t Die™ is taking aim at us here in the land of cheese and beer again. Yes, we dodged a bullet overnight, when it was a bit warmer than anticipated and the moisture for the most part missed the bunker and the measuring sticks at Mitchell, but the National Weather Service is calling for at least 6 inches of snow Thursday (note; the link is highly dynamic, and the forecast is valid at the time listed at the bottom of this post), with an unspecified higher amount near the lake. The bad news; the bunker and the measuring sticks are in the traditional lake-effect belt, and we only need 11.8 inches to bust the record. The ugly; it’s going to be another wet, heavy snow.

I suppose the good news, such as it is, is I’m seeing bare spots outside the bunker. Of course, that isn’t good news for those along rivers. Further (and actual) react is banished to Page 2 for the reason of excessive vulgarities.

The view out of my living room window a few minutes ago…

(click for the full-size pic)

A couple of things to note:

- The snow’s already a good 5 inches deep
- The water tower, about a quarter-mile away, is all-but-invisible

And here I am without a working snowblower. Figures.

Well, Madison set a new seasonal snowfall record this morning, besting the 76.1 inches of snow that fell the winter of 1978-1979. Since Tom McMahon has such a good idea with 4-Block World, I’ll once again “borrow” it.

The view out a northwest-facing window about 10:30 this morning (I would have done the one out the southwest-facing living room one, but that, along with all the northeast-facing ones, have significant precip on it)…

Sorry; I blew up the wrong folder. No pic.

It’s so bad that my church, St. John’s Ev. Lutheran in Oak Creek (the one on Howell, not the one on Oakwood), has postponed its Ash Wednesday services until tomorrow (still at 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm).

10-14″ total, starting about the time of the afternoon rush, may keep the rank amateurs away from alcohol-related Fat Tuesday parties, but if you’re here, I doubt you’re a rank amateur. Therefore, if you’re in the Milwaukee area, I do believe you’ve been invited to a very special Drinking Right tonight.

On a semi-related note, I may not be a Catholic, but I don’t believe snow cream is something you have to give up for Lent. Heck, I might even try it with a chocolate twist this time around. A word to the wise; you may want to mark where you leave the collection bowl tonight and secure it; there will be a lot of snow and wind.

Conditions at Waukesha County’s Crites Field at 2:45 pm - 43 degrees, heavy drizzle, winds out of the west at 3 mph.

Conditions at Waukesha County’s Crites Field at 3:45 pm - 30 degrees, fog and mist, winds out of the northwest at 17 mph gusting to 26 mph.

If you have to drive in this, be ready for ice. I’m seeing it forming at the bunker as I type.

Since, like Wisconsin, it’s snowing in Maryland, Michelle Malkin brought out her family’s snow cream recipe. If only I had more than a dusting here, I’d try it.

(H/T - Jon Ham)

That’s right, honest-to-goodness snow fell in Baghdad today, and it’s been so long since snow fell, even 60-year-olds couldn’t remember a time that it did. No, it wasn’t sticking to the ground, but the locals that Reuters interviewed universally welcomed the snow as a sign of peace and hope. This makes the usual aches from shoveling the white stuff that fell here last night seem a little less achy.

No word from the “oh-so-compassionate” Left on whether this was Boooosh’s Fault™ or Gorebal “Warming”’s fault. Money says they’ll blame both.

Revisions/extensions (12:50 pm 1/11/2008) - Leave it to AFP to play the Gorebal “Warming” card (H/T - Bryan/HotAir Headlines)

Yes, we had tornadoes in January for the first time since 1967. However, we’ve got quarter-sized snowflakes falling in the south suburbs of Milwaukee right now, so be careful out there.

I agree 100% with Grumps on this:

It had been present for nearly twenty four hours. The time to begin driving cautiously was long past. Stopped vehicles do not “appear in the fog.” You may feel that way because you are driving too fast to see them in time.

Slow Down. The life you save may be your own.

One more thing; turn on your lights (low-beams, please). Visibility of a self-lighted object in fog is pretty close to twice that of one that is not self-lit. It doesn’t much help with absolute-zero visibility, but that’s where the slow down rule really comes in.

Perhaps barely since I’m in the middle of a nasty chest cold that travelled up to the head and back down again (which means it will in all likelyhood be gone by 5, not-so-coincidentally 2 hours before the January Drinking Right). Yesterday’s weather was just very wicked, though the worst passed to the south into Kenosha and Racine Counties, and the big hail somehow ended up just north of me. Wisconsin, based on preliminary reports, increased its January tornado total by a factor of 5. Kathy Carpenter has some coverage the media is missing so far.

You have confirmed incoming tornadoes, very high straight-line winds, and good-sized hail.

That about explains the weather here in my corner of the land of cheese and beer. After a cold-and-snowy December, we’ve got thunderstorms and tornado warnings going on, and we’re not even a full week into January.

This is the Emergency Blogging System. Because of the snow/ice/sleet/rain (but unfortunately, not thunder), it has been activated.

We’ve now had both snow-covered ice and ice-covered snow this short month. I honestly can’t tell which one’s worse, so I’ll leave it up to you, the gentle (Ed: Who is the EBS kidding? This is a full-contact blog.) reader.

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