The building that housed a sportsman club near Muscoda (Grant County) was destroyed by a fire started from a lightning strike. Isolated thunderstorms moved across southwest Wisconsin during the evening of July 28th.
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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 ARX wrote it up.
The building that housed a sportsman club near Muscoda (Grant County) was destroyed by a fire started from a lightning strike. Isolated thunderstorms moved across southwest Wisconsin during the evening of July 28th. Lightning from one of these storms is believed to have hit a nearby pine tree that resulted in the fire.
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 La Crosse, WI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 28, 5:42 PM CST, 2 hours 48 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service La Crosse WI 642 PM CDT Tue Jul 28 2020 .SHORT TERM...(This evening through Wednesday) Issued at 154 PM CDT Tue Jul 28 2020 Early afternoon analysis showed a surface boundary stretching from northern Wisconsin to far northwest Iowa. Plenty of clouds to be seen along said boundary, but overall looking pretty stable along and ahead of it. Eventually expect the boundary to become the focus for some showers and storms by mid-afternoon into this evening as moisture transport increases and leads to a bit more moisture convergence. For once, decent deep layer shear (40-45 kts in the 0-6 km layer east of the Mississippi River) will be present, owing to an upper level jet rounding the base of a larger scale trough over the Great Lakes. However, instability will be tough to come by, with consensus suggesting only 1000 to 1500 J/kg of SBCAPE along and ahead of the surface boundary. Given the shear and steep low level lapse rates, could see a few stronger storms capable of gusty winds and perhaps and isolated damaging winds, along with maybe some hail, mainly across central and southern Wisconsin where the strongest shear will be. Farther west, would expect mainly showers and a few rumbles of thunder into this evening. Any showers and storms should come to an end during the early morning hours with some patchy fog developing in areas that clear out earliest. The boundary then looks to stall out west to east across the center of Iowa into northern Illinois, with additional shower and storm development expected on Wednesday. At this time, this activity looks to remain south of the forecast area, but can't rule out a few showers/storms sneaking into northeast Iowa or far southwest Wisconsin. .LONG TERM...(Wednesday night through Tuesday) Issued at 154 PM CDT Tue Jul 28 2020 Still not looking at much potential for rain into the early part of next week. The region will be stuck under a relatively quiet northwest flow aloft with upper level ridging over the Rockies and troughing into the eastern Great Lakes from an upper level low near Hudsons Bay. What rain chances there are will be over the upcoming weekend as a short wave trough swings around the upper level low and across the northern Great Lakes. Right now, the bulk of the forcing from this wave should stay to the northeast of the area but it does look to push a weak cold front into the area. This could allow for some convection to form and move across the area from Saturday afternoon and evening and again Sunday afternoon. As of now, this activity does not look to be all that widespread with the overall weak forcing that is expected. Temperatures look to remain seasonable to maybe even a bit below normal with highs 75 to 85 into the weekend and then dropping back into the 70s for early next week. && .AVIATION...(For the 00Z TAFS through 00Z Wednesday evening) Issued at 633 PM CDT Tue Jul 28 2020 The surface front is pushing south of KLSE now and a shower had popped up, but just moved north of the airport. The winds have shifted at KRST and will shift to the northwest at KLSE early in the TAF period. The winds may be a little stronger at KLSE for the first hour or so, however the winds will decrease to light and variable during the evening. The clearing skies, light winds and slowly decreasing dewpoints will allow some fog to form. Confidence low on the coverage, so for now showed some visibility restrictions, but left VFR. && .ARX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WI...None. MN...None. IA...None. && SHORT TERM...CA LONG TERM...04 AVIATION...Zapotocny
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service La Crosse WI 258 AM CDT Tue Jul 28 2020 IAZ008>011-018-019-029-030-MNZ079-086>088-094>096-WIZ017-029- 032>034-041>044-053>055-061-291100- Mitchell-Howard-Winneshiek-Allamakee-Floyd-Chickasaw-Fayette- Clayton-Wabasha-Dodge-Olmsted-Winona-Mower-Fillmore-Houston- Taylor-Clark-Buffalo-Trempealeau-Jackson-La Crosse-Monroe-Juneau- Adams-Vernon-Crawford-Richland-Grant- 258 AM CDT Tue Jul 28 2020 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of southeast Minnesota...northeast Iowa and southwest into central Wisconsin. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight Scattered storms will be possible this afternoon and evening. These storms will be capable of producing gusty winds, small hail, and lightning. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday On Saturday afternoon and evening, there will be a chance of storms mainly along and north of Interstate 90. Additional storms will possible across the entire area on Sunday afternoon. It is too early to discern whether there will be any severe weather with any of these storms. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... No action needed. .EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATION... No webinar is scheduled. Boyne
The La Crosse radar (KARX), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 02:31 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A building near Muscoda was destroyed in a fire started by a lightning strike. Isolated thunderstorms moved across southwest Wisconsin during the evening of July 28th. It is believed that lightning hit a nearby pine tree with the resulting fire spreading to the building. The fire was not discovered until the following morning.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Wisconsin in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Wisconsin, July 2020
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 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 911571.