July 29th, 2008 Chase Western WI

Wisconsin is off limits most of the year due to the trees. On my way home from work the towering Cu was irresistible along with the slow moving system. At the time they were isolated cells moving around 15 kts well over an hour away some towers peaking into the 47.5Kft range, the were moving East, and I kind of just wanted to get a couple hours closer. I also figured a great day to introduce the kids to chasing. We left at 6:30 taking our time eating dinner. We headed East on I-94 making it as far as Wood County, several crisp isolated updrafts still existed as we first left Minnesota but, they soon collapsed, as a line developed SW towards La Crosse with some infrequent cycling in intensity and updrafts along the line, along with further collapses. We made it as far as Osseo where I stepped out and took a few shots of what was remaining around sunset with much of the remnants illuminated in a reddish/pink sunset. We then grabbed some gas and figured I would bribe the kids with some sit down food, I have the choice between a dinner (steak whatever, we had already had dinner) or DQ and they went for the DQ option, then briefly watched the lightning in the distance after sunset. We returned around 11pm having driven around 237 miles round trip.

Interestingly my daughters first comment as we made it into Wisconsin was ‘their sure are allot of trees, It makes it difficult to see the clouds’.

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