Wind blows strong with recent weather system

While showers and thunderstorms did pass over the area yesterday, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the big story seemed to be the wind.

The low pressure storm system passing over had what we call a strong pressure gradient, meaning there was a big difference in the lowest pressure in the center of the storm, and higher pressure surrounding the storm. The bigger those differences, the stronger the wind. We have all opened a door going into a building and either a push of wind comes out or in through the door. This is due to the pressure difference from inside and outside the building much like inside and outside the storm.

In our atmosphere, winds flow from high pressure towards low pressure. Technically they are flowing straight towards the center of the low, but with the rotation of the earth, it appears to us that the wind is flowing in a circular motion around the storm system counter-clockwise.

There were sporadic reports of trees down through-out the county last night. No warnings were issued with the storms however because the winds in most, if not all cases, were below the threshold of severe wind speeds. The damage comes from the strong winds coupled with saturated grounds from recent rains. The muddy ground can’t withstand the force of the roots of the tree that are being pushed up by the force of the wind on the tree and they fall much easier than normal.


There was also that report of a garage being blown over but that seems to be the only building affected so other questions come into play like was the building structurally compromised in some way before the winds, and the winds just aided in toppling the structure over.

We certanily were not the only ones to expierience damage with this system. Everything from tornadoes, hail and wind were reported yesterday in 6 area states related to the storm system.

The storm system is centered over Wisconsin as of Wednesday morning, so with it passing to our east, we will see winds pick up again later today from the west, though with the storm weakening, winds won’t be quite so strong.

Winds are weak with the low centered over us. This would be similar to the eye of a hurricane, which is just a VERY strong low pressure system. With the winds blowing around the low, there is little wind at the center

There is also another round of showers coming through on the backside of this storm, but those should taper off by Wednesday afternoon.