freaky weather

The past few days have seen some weird weather in Wisconsin. I mean REALLY freaky weird!

It's been really warm, definitely not typical January weather. We broke high temp records Sunday and Monday, and are still way above average temps again today. Yesterday was extreme - Racine had a high temp of 63 degrees!!! The previous high temp for that day was around 48. And the AVERAGE high on 1/7 is 28 degrees. So Monday's temp was 35 degrees above normal. WOW!!

It's been rainy, also odd for January. Because we had around 3 feet of snow in December, and now with the rain and the snowmelt, there is a lot of flooding, with flood warnings in Racine and Kenosha Counties. That usually happens in spring, not mid-winter. All of the snow is gone, and some rivers and creeks are already above their flood height, and that will continue to get worse for the next few days.

But the most freaky weird thing - we had tornadoes yesterday! :-o Amidst the thunderstorms and occasional small hail, at least THREE tornadoes were confirmed in SE Wisconsin. Previously, there had been only ONE tornado EVER in January in Wisconsin in recorded history. In Racine, where I work, a tornado warning started at 4pm... everyone in our building came down to the "basement" (the lowest level of the building where accounting resides). That warning didn't go away until 4:45. Lucky for us the three tornadoes were south and southwest from us. The storm kind of jumped over us and then opened up again over Lake Michigan. Well... most folks left the office right after that. I didn't, since I usually work until at least 6pm - and radar didn't show much coming back our way. OOPS! At 5:45 we were put under another tornado warning. Good thing I'm already in the basement; I just watched the radar online. That storm went north of the office. That warning was done at 6pm, and I left shortly thereafter, so I could "get outta Dodge" before the next smaller storm cell hit. YIKES! Absolutely freaky deaky, as a friend of mine says. lol

So now today temps are still significantly above average, altho not likely to break records. More storms are headed this way, but so far it looks like rain only, no hail or tornadoes. I guess all I can say is that this is Wisconsin. There is no such thing as "typical" weather!