Storm hits Lake Mills

Published 4:00 pm Saturday, August 30, 2014

Strong winds blew through Lake Mills Friday night, resulting in downed trees and a light pole.

The storm came through at about 5:35 p.m. and lasted for only a couple minutes, according to John Wacha, Lake Mills police officer.

“It was very, very short,” Wacha said.

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The majority of the damage was in the northeast part of the city.

Most of the damage was to trees that had been blown down, but a cement city light pole had been snapped in half, Wacha said. There were also some downed powerlines.

Wacha said that he noticed a few trees laying against houses, but he didn’t see any serious or significant house damages.

There were also no injuries from the storm despite its power.

“That was the best part,” Wacha said.

Adam Frederick, chief meteorologist with KIMT 3 Weather, said that the storm didn’t appear to be a tornado, but rather a wind event. He said it was probably a microburst.

A microburst is a localized column of sinking air during a thunderstorm. Air does not spin like a tornado, but rather sinks straight down.

Microbursts can last from a few seconds to a few minutes and usually bring along strong winds that can knock down trees.

Frederick said that people are quick to label high-wind events as tornadoes, but as of press time no tornado activity had been confirmed.