A Wisconsin Tornado Swarm

George E. Hrabovsky, President of MAST

In thirty years of spotting and chasing severe weather; including witnessing more than sixty tornadoes, I have never had a day as good as this. That is a bittersweet statement. As a scientist, I am both fascinated and awed by these displays of nature. I seek them out with all of the skills and luck afforded me and my compatriots. At the same time, one of the twenty six tornadoes spawned on the 18th of August killed a man sheltering in his basement; more than sixty homes were damaged or destroyed, and more than $47,000,000 of damage was done.

While we chase, we also call in what we witness, and the tornadoes we saw were no different. One way amateur scientists can help is to alert the public to dangers they might not be aware of.

I wish to point out that these successful chases are the result of close teamwork; I wish to thank Jim Firmiss, the secretary of MAST, for driving/leading the chase, and my wife Di for taking some of her own astonishing video. A more detailed study of this outbreak is forthcoming.

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