Severe Weather Season Starts in Spring, Monday May Be Madness

MADISON, Wis. (CIVIC MEDIA) – Heads up for severe weather to start the week as numerous rounds of severe thunderstorms want to strike the state.

These supercells will be capable of producing all severe weather hazards in Wisconsin, like large hail, damaging high winds and the potential for strong tornadoes.

The risk Monday starts in the morning with a warm front. Strong to severe thunderstorms could pack large damaging hail. Stay away from windows. Mostly starting around 6 a.m. these storms will sweep into the state from the west, and stay mainly north late morning and into the early afternoon.

Southern Wisconsin recently had widespread hail damage, some the size of baseballs, from severe warned storms that woke towns up early on a Friday morning, April 18th.

Midday high temperatures will spike warm, into the 80s south, with muggy air seeping in too. Don’t let spots of sunshine fool you.

This is the perfect mixture to fuel damaging storms.

And a cold front slams the state late.

The Storm Prediction Center has put areas like Richland Center, over to Madison, up to Stevens Point and over to Eau Claire, including La Crosse at center stage.

The round of storms later Monday, rolls the threat of severe into the overnight. Beware, if an isolated storm sparking up early evening before the main line moves through, it could pack an intense and long-lived damaging tornado.

Starting in Superior around 6 PM, a line of thunderstorms will head towards the Chippewa Valley/Wausau area arriving just after dark. Bringing large hail the size of ping pongs possible, heavy downpours and tornadoes may be embedded and hidden in it too. It’ll push into cities like La Crosse and Madison after midnight. The timing is terrible and it’ll be moving fast around 50mph in the dark. However, as the storms move east towards Lake Michigan before dawn, they’ll weaken.

When the sirens go off or an emergency alert pops up on your phone, telling you to take shelter from a tornado heading towards you, do you know where to go? How will you get your warnings if you’re sleeping?

Where are you taking shelter? Because it can happen, Wisconsin averages about 23 tornadoes every year, and 45 of them tore through our state last year. Making it the third most active season, ever.

A tornado watch means be prepared and ready to act quickly. It’s when you should keep an eye on the forecast and your head up. Storms could start to spin into a super cell. If those gain some steam a tornado could rapidly drop from it. This is when a tornado warning will be issued. It means that a tornado is on the ground and spotted by someone. Or it’s showing strong rotation on radar. Which means reports of high winds whipping at the radar and away from it in a small space, is likely a twister.

Have a plan and practice it now. When emergencies strike, time is limited. Seek out the lowest level like a basement or ground floor. Then, pick a spot that’s got plenty of walls between you and the outside. Maybe a closet or bathroom.

Most tornadoes tend to rip through the upper levels and tear down exterior walls as the roof blows off. Flying debris then becomes missiles, so you’ll want to get under something and cover yourself. Get low and protect your head.

If you’re driving, pull over and go inside the nearest building for shelter. Don’t stay in your car or go under an overpass, you’re actually safer getting into a ditch or a ravine.