May 30, 2002


     A warm humid day with a lot of instability. A tornado watch is issued for northern Wisconsin. At this point my chase partner Scott Cultice and I just left work and I already issued several warnings myself. We have heard that these storms have produced funnel clouds near wrightstown so we travel south on highway 43 to intercept the storm. As we drive we encounter 1/2" hail as we punch the core of the storm. The only reason we punched was because we knew there were no touchdowns...just funnel cloud reports. We see Severe Hail at 5:25 pm near County C and Highway 43 and call it in. We take a look at radar and decide the storms are over the lake with not much development to our west so we head back north.
     As I am driving I notice a rotating cloud so I stop over an underpass to investigate (not for the reason you may think). Indeed this is a rotating funnel cloud...sited at 5:40 pm. This rotation is awesome but approaching us. When the rotation gets almost overhead we head north to get another view. However by this time the rotation is gone as a cool easterly breeze from lake michigan kills things. As we head home we notice more convection to our south...but this appears much weaker than the previous cells so we continue home.

  
Here is a developing thunderstorm to the south of Green Bay
  
Notice the intense titled updraft
  
Here is the base of the updraft
  
This storm is developing almost right over us
  
Here is some 3/4" hail just at county C and HWY 43 south of Manitowoc
  
Here is the radar picture...notice a bit of a hook
  
Here is one of the rotating funnel clouds near hwy 151 and 43
  
Here is the feature to the right...also rotating
  
These clouds are rotating almost directly over us
  
Most storms are now over the lake with one developing south of GRB
  
A picure of the developing thunderstorm south of Green Bay
  
Another pic of the same storm

YouTube video of the rotating cloud

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