We had tornado warnings out for
that cell...the meteorology dictated it...but we had no verifying tornado
reports. I worked that evening...and I remember a widespread, straight southeast
surface inflow across Columbia, Dodge, Ozaukee, Dane, Jefferson, Waukesha, and
Milwaukee counties....feeding into the supercell. However...there were no
low-level boundaries for that supercell to interact with...either old outflow
boundaries, or a lake breeze front....so a low-level vortex just couldn't spin
up and stretch vertically into the mesocyclone above...and we had a pretty good
meso aloft. My guess is that the FFD wasn't strong enough to lay down an outflow
boundary toward the east-southeast that might have concentrated low-level
vorticity under the updraft/mesocyclone aloft, as the supercell moved ese.
* Strong rotation in 0.5 degree slice and moderate to strong in successive
elevations. * Some indications of a hook...but nothing like the indications we
had with the Oakfield tornado. * Incredibly high VILS (around 70). * Radar Max
Hail Size algorithm was giving us 3 to 4 inches. * Very high cores...55 to 65
DBZ to 50k ft. * Some lean on the cores but I don't recall an actual BWER. I
really felt we were going to get a tornado out of this given all of the radar
signatures that I saw. The storm relative velcoity data combined with the
"supercell-ish" appearance that it had taken on in the 0.5 slice forced my hand
into issuing the Tornado warnings from the Green Lake county area southeastward
into Dodge county.
Rusty
Paul Collar Forecaster