Power Outage in Augusta, WI

Multiple bands of heavy snow. ||A powerful winter storm produced multiple bands of widespread significant snowfall to parts of Western Wisconsin. A Winter Storm Watch was issued on February 19th for the entire County Warning Area to bring attention to the significant system coming a few days later. On February 21st, all counties in Western Wisconsin were upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning for wind gusts of 35-40 mph, and heavy accumulating snow of up to 12-18 inches in some areas. Using the Winter Storm Severity Index, considerable disruptions to daily life were expected. This included avoidance of travel recommendations, and potentially widespread closures to roads and other infrastructure.||Snow began to fall on the afternoon of February 21st and persisted in waves through the afternoon of February 23rd. Wind gust observations did detail some gusts reached the low to mid 30 mph range. The first band of snow was less significant as compared to the next bands of snow. Overall snow accumulations provided by a combination of trained spotters and the CoCoRaHS observers, verified the forecast. Snowfall accumulations ranged from 8-16 inches across the region. ||Some of the highest snowfall totals included:||15.5 inches 13 miles south of Eau Claire WI.|15 inches near Hudson WI.|15.9 inches 9 miles northeast of New Richmond, WI.|14.7 inches near Chippewa Falls WI.|14.0 inches near Chetek WI.

February 21, 2023

During the early evening of Wednesday, July 28th, scattered thunderstorms developed along a slowly moving frontal boundary across Northern Wisconsin. A very warm layer above the surface kept most of the activity isolated until early evening as thunderstorms developed north of St. Croix Falls to Ladysmith, Wisconsin. These storms continued to build southward, and a few developed over east-central Minnesota near Chisago City before moving into Polk County, Wisconsin. ||During the evening, the storms congealed into a solid line of severe storms as they tracked southward across west central Wisconsin. ||As the storms moved southward, several tight circulations developed, one stronger circulation near New Richmond produced a tornado southeast of town. This tornado damaged about one dozen homes, mostly due to shingles, soffits or siding being torn off. One house, however, had windows blown in and had partial roof damage. It also had a garage that was completely blown apart and destroyed, but the garage had been added on and was not part of the original house itself. Another house had damage to its front porch overhang, which allowed wind to enter the attic and punch a hole through the roof on the backside of the house. At a farm, an old barn collapsed. At another house, part of the roof was blown off a machine shed.||Other storm surveys revealed two areas of significant downburst winds. One was determined that a downburst blew down hundreds of trees along a broad swath from 4 miles SSW of Deer Park, to 9 miles north of Baldwin. The trees were blown down from the north, northeast or east. There was roof damage to one local business. The second area was determined that a downburst hit the west side of Spring Valley. Numerous trees, sheds and power lines were blown down. A school gymnasium roof was damaged and a lot of the debris landed on houses and vehicles. A local resident stated that the severe winds persisted for several minutes.||Outside of these damaged areas, there was minor damage to trees and power lines over Barron, Dunn, Rusk, Chippewa, St. Croix and Pierce counties.

July 28, 2021

Thunderstorm Wind. A large tree fell onto a powerline near Fall Creek.

June 17, 2021

Thunderstorm Wind. A large tree fell onto a powerline in Altoona.

June 17, 2021

Thunderstorm Wind. A couple large tree branches, including one that landed on a power line, fell down near Augusta.

July 18, 2020