Dan Strickland, on vacation with his family (which includes our own Jackie Bang) in Green Lake, Wisconsin, photographed this spectacular cloud to ground lightning discharge around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning. The powerful storms, which appeared as a fast moving bow-shaped line on radar displays--the signature for strong and potentially damaging winds, swept across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois generating powerful wind gusts, driving downpours and stunning lightning displays, as pictured here. Once out over Lake Michigan, the squall line appears to have generated a "seiche" activity--rapid lake level fluctuations--- Wednesday morning along Chicago's lakefront--notably near Montrose Harbor. One of our viewers reported the 6" of water she had waded into while walking her dog suddenly disappeared only to return shortly afterward--the sort of oscillation in lake levels typical with seiches. The strong winds which gush out of a line of storms like those which swept the area this morning, produce waves on the lake which hit the Michigan/Indiana shoreline and reflect back to the Illinois side of the lake as a seiche.
Thanks to Dan Strictland for the stunning photo--and have a great vacation!!
-Tom Skilling
Photo courtesy of Dan Strickland
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
