An upper level trough of low pressure was located over eastern Wisconsin and Lake Michigan. The trough combined with instability in the lower atmosphere to spawn showers and thunderstorms.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS MKX wrote it up.
An upper level trough of low pressure was located over eastern Wisconsin and Lake Michigan. The trough combined with instability in the lower atmosphere to spawn showers and thunderstorms. Conditions were favorable for waterspouts over Lake Michigan. One waterspout was observed just northeast of Milwaukee Harbor in the morning.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Milwaukee, WI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 26, 2:26 PM CST, 18 hours 49 minutes earlier.
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</html>The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 15:12 UTC.
1 waterspout. Local standard time, as filed.
One waterspout observed by the public including a former NWS student volunteer. The waterspout was observed for about 25 minutes, moving slowly east to southeast away from shore.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Lake Michigan in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather history
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 390276.