High Wind — Menominee, Wisconsin

2010-10-26 to 2010-10-27 · Menominee, Wisconsin

Event narrative

A number of trees were knocked down throughout the county, creating scattered power outages.

Wider weather episode

An area of low pressure moved into the Midwest on October 25th, rapidly intensified as it moved northward through Minnesota on October 26th, and tracked northeast through Lake Superior into Southeast Ontario on October 27th. As the storm reached peak intensity during the late afternoon on the 26th over Minnesota, the lowest barometric pressure readings ever recorded in the central United States occurred (subject to verification). A reading of 28.21 (955.2 mb) was recorded at Bigfork MN, a pressure that is found in Category 3 hurricanes!

This intense storm produced wind gusts over 60 mph across parts of Northeast Wisconsin. Highest gusts included 79 mph in Sherwood at a well-exposed location on the northeast shore of Lake Winnebago (Calumet County), 68 mph in Algoma (Kewaunee County), 61 mph in Wausau (Marathon County) and 60 mph in Rhinelander (Oneida County). The high winds caused widespread power outages across mainly northern Wisconsin, with as many as 60,000 customers without power at the height of the storm. Trees were knocked down in scattered locations in the region, some falling on homes and cars. The strong and persistent southwest winds pushed the water out of the Fox River and lower part of the bay of Green Bay, with water levels falling some three feet from normal. Over the course of the next two days, the water sloshed back and forth with water levels rising and falling in the lower bay and Fox River between one and two feet as a seiche set up. Water levels returned to normal on the afternoon of the 28th as the winds shifted to the west, then northwest.

Damage amounts are estimated. The total damage could be considerably higher since any damage that might have occurred to vacation cottages won't be discovered until spring.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 261089. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.