July 22, 2006: Hail in Columbia, Dane and Sauk Counties

Widely scattered thunderstorms developed across south-central and southeast Wisconsin during the afternoon of July 22nd as convective inhibition diminished. Cold air aloft and low freezing levels made it easy for storms to produce large hail and a few reports of damaging, straight-line winds. Up to golf-ball sized hail was noted. The storms diminished quickly as instability subsided toward evening.On July 22nd, a female, age 94, died due to elevated temperatures in her residence in Monroe (Green Co.). She was not using her air-conditioner, Outside maximum and minimum air temperatures on July 22nd in the Monroe area were about 80 and 58, respectively. Afternoon heat index values maxed out in the lower 80s, well below official threshold values of 105 needed to generate a heat event in StormData. Therefore, this heat-related death will be considered as an indirectly-related heat death. It is possible that the three hot days of July 15-17, with maximum air temperatures in the mid 90s and overnight lows of 70-75, may have weakened the 94-year-old female (pre-conditioned). Heat index values reached 95 to 100 on July 15th in the Monroe area.