January Tornadoes

This has been a weird winter. It's unusual for the temperature to be around 50 at 1:00 AM in January in Wisconsin. Al Gore must be salivating.

Within the span of a few weeks, we've had a winter's worth of snow and ice and cold, along with the accompanying damn ice dams; and we moved straight into the big thaw, dense fog, temperatures in the 60s, and wicked springtime-like thunderstorms with tornadoes.

For some people yesterday, the storms were more than an inconvenience. Some lost more than their power. They lost their homes. Two people lost their lives.

MARSHFIELD, Mo. -- A rare January outbreak of tornadoes raked the Midwest on Monday, flattening houses in several states and killing at least two people in Missouri.

An elderly woman was killed near Strafford in Greene County, officials said, and a 53-year-old woman's body was found by rescuers in a wooded area north of Marshfield near her trailer, which was destroyed.

At least six people were taken to hospitals by ambulance, said Michael Taylor, fire chief in Marshfield in the southwestern part of the state.

Two other people were in critical condition, said Ed Gray, a spokesman for Missouri's emergency management agency.

Storms continued to pummel the nation's midsection as darkness fell on a day when record temperatures were reported across much of the country. Tornadoes were also reported or suspected in Arkansas and Oklahoma and along the Illinois-Wisconsin line.

...About six homes were destroyed in the small town of Poplar Grove, Ill., where authorities rescued motorists trapped by downed, live electrical lines and crews searched damaged structures to make sure no one was trapped. Three people suffered minor injuries, Boone County Sheriff's Lt. Perry Gay said.

About 15 miles away in Harvard, Ill., a suspected tornado derailed one locomotive and 12 freight cars. A tank car containing shock fluid leaked for hours before it was contained, and another derailed car contained ethylene oxide, a flammable material widely used to sterilize medical supplies, but was not leaking, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.

Authorities ordered about 500 residents to evacuate the nearby unincorporated town of Lawrence, said Capt. David Shepherd with the McHenry County Sheriff's Office. No injuries were reported, he said.

As costly as the property damage is, it's the human toll that is the most devastating in these natural disasters.

Areas of southeastern Wisconsin were hit hard in terms of property destruction.

TOWN OF WHEATLAND, Wis. (AP) -- The Kenosha County sheriff says it's a miracle no one was seriously injured when a rare series of January tornadoes ripped through southeastern Wisconsin and left demolished houses in its wake.

"I have never seen damage like this in the summertime when we have potential for tornadoes," Sheriff David Beth said. "To see something like this in January is mind-boggling to me. This is just unimaginable to me."

The storm system that spawned the twisters swung north from northern Illinois about 4:15 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Hardest hit was a subdivision in the town of Wheatland, about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee and just north of the Illinois border.

Deputies were already in the area, responding to a rollover accident, when they saw a house collapse, Beth said. Windblown debris ripped the emergency light bar off their squad car.

The deputies got the motorist out of the car and then ran to the house.

"They pulled the wreckage from the basement door and got some people out," he said.

There were two or three houses where people had to be rescued, but they only suffered bumps and bruises, Beth said.

Matthew Gronke, fire chief for the town of Randall, said 11 houses in Wheatland were destroyed, five others had heavy damage and four had moderate damage.

In addition to the tornado in Wheatland, another was confirmed south of Wheatland and a third on the north side of Kenosha, said Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman Lori Getter.

It truly is a miracle that no one was seriouly injured in the storms that ripped through Walworth, Kenosha, and Racine counties.

...The tornado warning disrupted legal proceedings in Walworth County, as at least 300 people were evacuated to a courthouse basement as a precaution.

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce E. Schroeder was presiding over opening testimony in a high-profile murder trial that was moved in Walworth County. He said he couldn't believe it when the deputy said the courtroom had to be evacuated because of a tornado warning.

"It's a first," he said while waiting in the basement. "I've actually had .... warnings occur during jury trials before and frankly I just ignored them. But not in January."

The evacuation lasted about an hour.

How surreal!

According to data from the National Weather Service, Wisconsin previously had recorded only one tornado in January since 1844. The only other tornado in the first month of the year was in 1967.

The twisters were part of an odd series of weather phenomena. The temperature in Milwaukee soared to a record for the date of 63 degrees, far above the previous high of 47 in 1965 and again in 2003.

There's no question that the weather was abnormal, but I don't think believers in Al Gore's brand of global warming hysteria should use the events as proof that the planet is on the brink.

There was a January tornado in Wisconsin over 40 years ago. Obviously, it's rare, but yesterday's outbreak wasn't the first.

Instead of freaking out about global warming Armageddon and politicizing the unusual weather, concern should be for the victims of the storms.

The fact is weird things happen. Yesterday was an exceptionally weird day.