Weather – No Runny Eggs

Thursday Fun Read – WSJ’s “How to Measure a Storm’s Fury One Breakfast at a Time”

steveegg — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:03:21 +0000

The Wall Street Journal has your post-Irene feel-good story of the day – how the Waffle House recovers so quickly from a disaster like a hurricane. In fact, FEMA director Craig Fugate uses Waffle House as a gauge on how bad a disaster is.

I’ll give you how the Weldon, North Carolina Waffle House dealt with Irene as a tease to get you over to WSJ.com to read the entire thing:

The company began tracking Irene 10 days ago, moving ice and eggs to staging sites outside the potential damage zone.

On Friday, the company’s mobile command center—an RV named EM-50 after Bill Murray’s urban-assault vehicle in the 1981 movie “Stripes”—headed north from the Norcross, Ga., headquarters.

Power went off at the Waffle House just off Interstate 95 in Weldon on Saturday evening as Irene churned through. The restaurant kept serving until it got too dark for the grill cook to see when the food was cooked, then it shut down.

It reopened the next day at dawn. The overhead lights and walk-in freezer weren’t working, but the gas grill was. The cooks boiled water on the grill, then poured it through the coffee machine, over beans ground before the power went out. The district manager, Chris Barnes, handed employees copies of an emergency grill-only menu. The fare included ham-and-egg sandwiches for $3.15 and quarter-pound hamburgers for $2.70. Servers nudged customers to order sausage instead of bacon, because four sausage patties fit on the grill for every two slices of bacon.

By 9 a.m., cars were lining up to get into the parking lot. At 10 a.m., the power came back on, the ceramic waffle irons were plugged in and waffles were added to the menu.

Coming soon – AEGIS weather radar?

steveegg — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:55:22 +0000

(H/T – Dad29)

Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That? is on the scene at the 2010 test of the National Severe Storms Laboratory’s Phased Array Radar. The current testbed is an adaptation of 1/4th of a Navy AN/SPY-1A phased-array radar, giving 90 degrees of coverage (as it has only one of the four arrays). It holds the promise of both increased warning times on severe storms because of increased speed of updates versus the current mechanically-steered WSR-88D weather radar and a dual mission of replacing the current generation of air traffic control radars.

The biggest impediment to implementation is going to be cost. The reported cost for the most-produced current version of the SPY-1 radar (the D model fitted to Arleigh Burke destroyers and a several different foreign navy ship classes) is somewhere around $11 million per copy, compared to an eventual per-unit cost of $2.5 million for the current WSR-88D weather-only radar. I don’t think too many TV stations are going to be buying their own copies.

Snowpocalypse Now

steveegg — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:13:17 +0000

Let’s see…

14.5 inches of snow at the airport (a bit northeast of the bunker) as of 6 am.
Over an hour to just clear the area immediately in front of the garage and between the top of the hill and the street, complete with 5-foot drifts at the deepest on either end. Somehow, the part of the driveway alongside the house (and the back walk) was clear.
Another hour-plus to do the sidewalk and clean off the end of the driveway after the city plow went through (a packed 5-foot drift on the sidewalk just to the east of the driveway, and a “natural” 5-foot drift at the west end of the sidewalk.
Speaking of plows, the 9 am run whacked the mailbox (oops).

Still, I consider myself lucky. Things got even worse the further south one got. I-94 and I-43 were both shut down south of Milwaukee for quite a while as the 2-feet-of-snow mark stretched up to Racine.

I do have a serious public-service announcement or two as we deal with it with the usual Wisconsin speed:

If you have a high-efficiency furnace/water heater/dryer, make sure the vents are clear.
Don’t tackle it all at once; we don’t need you dying of a heart attack.

Go back, Demon Snow…

steveegg — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:05:36 +0000

After a couple of winters of laughing my ass off at the East Coasters, northwest burb types, and those south of the Root River, it looks like I’m finally going to get mine…a massive dumping of snow, that is. Well, it’s not supposed to be too bad…until Tuesday night, when all Hell breaks loose with 12-18 inches, combined with a blizzard wind, to fall on top of the 4-6 that’s supposed to hit tonight through the day on Tuesday.

In honor of that, I’m bringing back a classic Soviet “Everyone to the fight with the blizzard” graphic my blogfather used to run…

Oh yeah, I also have a request in to Bob and Brian to re-run Demon Snow (link to the transcripted version). “Go back, Demon Snow, back from whence you came. Leave the good people of Milwaukee alone.”

New non-tropical low-pressure records

steveegg — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:54:18 +0000

This Demon Low is still intensifying, so don’t consider this the final word on it. Late this morning, Superior set a new Wisconsin state record for low pressure at 28.38″ of mercury (adjusted for sea level), breaking the old record of 28.45″ set in Green Bay on April 3, 1982.

Meanwhile, as of 3:13 pm, Orr, Minnesota had a low pressure of 28.22″ of mercury, shattering the previous non-tropical US record of 28.28″ measured just west of Cleveland on January 26, 1978. That is just 0.01″ above the North American non-tropical land record set in Sarnia, Ontario, and a bit above the Great Lakes record of 28.05″ on a buoy in Lake Huron, both measured during that same 1978 blizzard.

For a couple of points of reference, the minimum pressure of the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald bottomed out at 28.95″, and a typical Category 3 hurricane is expected to have minimum pressures between 27.91″ and 28.47″.

Revisions/extensions (5:34 pm 10/26/2010) – Bigfork dropped to 28.21″ of pressure.

R&E part 2 (10:17 pm 10/26/2010) – And it’s a new land record at Bigfork – 28.20″ of pressure recorded at 5:13 pm.

Demon Snow hits the East Coast

steveegg — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:26:31 +0000

With my friends up and down the East Coast buried under a lot of snow, I figured I should try to cheer them up by giving them the heart of the transcript of Bob and Brian’s “Demon Snow” (from their 1995 album “Tahellwitchoo”. We’ll pick it up just before Brian takes over (the picture is courtesy The Saginaw News):

(Bob) There’s a lot of pictures of salt trucks.
This is a salt truck.

(Start the Brian monologue) This is the machine that will deliver us from Demon Snow,
That fell, like poison from the sky,
Coating our roads with icy death,
Untill the brave men rose
That steer the monster orange 10-wheelers.
Throwing themselves into the teeth of the monster,
Defying nature, and all its forces,
Saying, “I stand on this wall. You will not pass.
“Go back, Demon Snow, back from whence you came.
“Leave the good people of Milwaukee alone.
“I melt thee, I melt thee with SALT!
“Damneth thee!” (Bob chimes in with a “Shut up!” because he’s been laughing uncontrollably)
“Damn thee to Hell now, white monster!”
There’s a guy on the back of a salt truck,
Caught up in all kinds of lines and wires,
Going into the snowstorm.
“Look! He beckons! Ahab beckons!”

I know, it’s a poor substitute for the actual audio, but since I don’t have permission to post that,….

Demon Snow 2009 update

steveegg — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:08:09 +0000

All I have to say is I got REAL lucky here in Oak Creek. The first round of Demon Snow started while I was at Drinking Right with most of the usual crew, which made the drive home a bit of an adventure. When I got home about 11 pm, the power was out, I was getting pelted by snow falling off the trees over the street, and there were about 2 very-wet inches on the ground.

Sometime around 1 am, two things changed – that snow became rain, and the power came back on. About 6 am, there was about another inch on the ground, the wind had pretty much stopped, but I could still see the tire tracks from last night, so I decided to get the super-soggy snow off the pavement before the temps take a nose dive later today. No sooner did I get done with that than the snow restarted in earnest.

Still, that makes me very lucky compared to my friends to the north of Milwaukee County and to the west of US-45. They got the snow ALL NIGHT LONG, and unlike the predictions, it sounds like it’s not exactly the fluffy stuff.

Your inspirational Soviet poster of the day

steveegg — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:58:54 +0000

It is especially appropriate for those of you between the Wisconsin bunker and the Minnesota bunker seeing the deepest of the foot-deep ~~snow~~ Gorebal “Warming” will be splitting the difference. My blogfather used to put this up at the various runs of Spotted Horse before he flamed out whenever Demon Snow threatened.

For those of you who can’t read Russian, the rough translation is, “Everyone to the fight with the blizzard.”

I have got to find the Brian Nelson classic “Demon Snow”. The bad news is that the Bob and Brian album it is on, “Tahellwitchyoo”, is out of print, and my copy is long gone.

Revisions/extensions (11:09 am 12/8/2009) – Thanks to a loyal reader, I now have “Demon Snow” in my inbox, and it’s as good as I remember. Now go back Demon Snow, back from whence you came. Leave the good people of Milwaukee (and the Twin Cities) alone.

Pre-vacation COLD read – the forecast

steveegg — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:33:48 +0000

Below is the screencap of this morning’s Environment Canada official government-provided forecast for Dryden, Ontario, the closest forecast point to North Shore Lodge on Eagle Lake, where I’ll be the next week (do click for the full-sized pic):

For those of you who can’t do the math conversions of the temperatures, allow me to do them for you:

Saturday night’s low (what I will be arriving into) – 32 degrees
Sunday’s high – 50 degrees (with rain and a 13-mph wind)
Sunday night’s low – 37 degrees
Monday’s high – 57 degrees
Monday night’s low – 35 degrees
Tuesday’s high – 57 degrees
Tuesday night’s low – 35 degrees
Wednesday’s high – 63 degrees
Wednesday night’s low – 41 degrees
Thursday’s high – 68 degrees
Thursday night’s low – 45 degrees
Friday’s high – 63 degrees

Did I mention that the average high for today is 68 degrees, or the average low is 46?

Don’t worry; the cabins are heated, and I AM from Wisconsin, so I’m used to the cold. I also have good rain gear, so I won’t get too wet. In fact, the first year I went up there (Memorial Day week, 1996), the place went from 80 degrees to snow flying during the day.

However, I do have a question. Where’s my Gorebal “Warming”, Algore? Five days of six are forecast to have below-average highs, and all six nights are forecast to be below average.

If you think that the Canadian government can’t get it right and want to consult a second source, let’s go to The Weather Network. Their Saturday AM forecast has all six days with below-average highs, and five of six nights with below-average lows.

I actually feel sorry for the Gorebal “Warming” acolytes

steveegg — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:51:09 +0000

I’m sure they’re warming up their voices to start chanting, “It’s all your fault!” right about now because we had a real nice day yesterday and will have another one today. They just can’t seem to accept that sometimes the weather gets far nicer than we deserve this time of year in the land of cheese and beer.

Am I in DC or in Wisconsin?

steveegg — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:11:12 +0000

Sometimes, that big lake a few miles east of the bunker is a real pain in the ass. While the DC Beltway is welcoming some of Algore Goracle’s acolytes with 5-8 inches of snow (pretty much predicted), I get to deal with somewhere north of 10 unpredicted inches. In fact, in the updated Lake Effect Snow Warning, the National Weather Service says I could see up to 15.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Who invited Algore Goracle to DC?

steveegg — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:50:26 +0000

This is going to fuck up my return trip –

The National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia has issued a Winter Storm Warning for snow…which is in effect from 2 pm this afternoon to 2 pm EST Monday. The Winter Storm Watch is no longer in effect.

An upper-level disturbance across the Deep South will move east today…developing a low pressure area over southern Georgia this afternoon. This developing low pressure system will push up the Eastern Seaboard through the afternoon and evening hours…with a tight gradient of accumulating snowfall ahead of the low. Accumulating snows will begin to affect portions area (sic) of north central Virginia and southern Maryland by mid to late afternoon.

Based on the current storm track..6 to 10 inches of snow can be expected along the Interstate 95 corridor…upwards of a foot will be possible along the Chesapeake Bay near and south of Annapolis..4 to 6 inches can be expected across the western suburbs.

Gusty winds will also develop overnight Sunday into early Monday. The low will track northeast of the area Monday…bringing an end to the precipitation by midday Monday.

A Winter Storm Warning means significant amounts of snow…sleet…and ice are expected or occurring. Strong winds are also possible. This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.

Not that things are much better back at the bunker. I just missed an ice storm there, and as I type, it’s 14 degrees there.

Oak Creek plowing – 12/19/2008 – much better

steveegg — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:14:36 +0000

I don’t know if was me that got results, but for this snow-bomb, Oak Creek got out there well before 5 am. In fact, they were working on my subdivision at 4 am.

See how much easier it is when the 4-hour prohibition on parking on the streets is taken advantage of, and 11 hours’ worth of packed snow isn’t being fought? It makes even a lot of snow (9 inches and counting) easier to handle.

Revisions/extensions (8:20 am 12/19/2008) – Don’t say I never give the Soviets any props. My blogfather used to have this propaganda piece up at Spotted Horse when the White Death threatened us…

Everyone to the fight with the Blizzard!

R&E part 2 (4:05 pm 12/19/2008) – I can see pavement! MUCH better than last time.

Snow plowing in Oak Creek – FAIL

steveegg — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:41:50 +0000

Let’s run through the timeline on this past storm:

– Snow starts falling at Mitchell International (just north of Oak Creek) – sometime between 12:52 pm and 1:52 pm.
– Accumulation in my driveway at 5 pm when I left to pick up my younger sister from the airport – approximately 1 inch
– County plows spotted – several times between 5 pm and 8:30 pm
– Majority of snow ends at Mitchell – prior to 8:52 pm
– Last of the snow ends at Mitchell – prior to 12:52 am
– Total amount of snow at Mitchell – 2.4 inches
– Major thoroughfares in the city of Milwaukee plowed – prior to 4 am
– First city of Oak Creek plow sighted – 5 am
– Time my subdivision got “plowed” (the term is used loosely because there is a layer of snow and ice still on the streets) – 7 am (there is a school in the subdivision that opens at 8 am)

This, in a city that last year, found enough additional spending to raise the property tax levy increase from a 3.80% increase to a 3.86% increase, in a city that just spent over $8 million on a new garag…er, Taj Mahal for the Street Department, in a city where the mayor wants to build a $20 million monument to himself under the guise of a new oversized city hall/library combo complete with underground parking, and in a city that, in addition to taxing to the max, is raiding just about every last fund that has a positive balance to mask the true increase in spending, is fucking unacceptable.

But, but, but I thought there was no chance of rain tonight

steveegg — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:25:55 +0000

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.

More incoming…

steveegg — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:42:11 +0000

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.

Oak Creek flood closures update – 6/12/2008 AM

steveegg — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:50:28 +0000

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.

Oak Creek flooding update – 1 pm 6/11/2008

steveegg — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:39:53 +0000

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.

27th Street southbound now reopened

steveegg — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:30:46 +0000

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.

Oak Creek flood closures winding down

steveegg — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:36:50 +0000

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.

Still only 2 ways out of Oak Creek to the south

steveegg — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:45:05 +0000

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.

Oak Creek flooding continues

steveegg — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:47:06 +0000

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.

Flooding state of emergency in Oak Creek

steveegg — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:51:13 +0000

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”.

Wicked weather part 2

steveegg — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:58:41 +0000

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

I’ve got incoming UPDATE – incoming slid south

steveegg — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:12:33 +0000

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.