29. The weather has been beautiful, yesterday's high was 46.8 and today's forecast from the NWS calls for 50. I measured a snow pack depth of 16.8" last night -- that's down 4.8" from the day before! It's sunny with blue skies and light winds, but my mind is still focused on the NWS SkywarnSpotters class last night that I attended in Ashland. I found some stuff that I wanted to post.
The total tally of tornado reports for 2007 is 1305 across the US.
Only nine of the Lower 48 didn't have a tornado reported last year, the rest saw between 1 and 187 (Texas) tornadoes.
Even Wisconsin, that some would classify as having 'boring' weather, reported 23 tornadoes. The yearly average for the state is 19 according to the State Climatology Office.
Closer to home.
All the numbers can be found on the report's website, but I wanted to post the numbers for Wisconsin.
23 reported Tornadoes. 221 reports of Large Hail. 339 reports of Wind Damage.
583 total reports.
From looking at the map, reports were received from every county, even along the shorelines of Lake Superior and Michigan. Moral of the map? Severe weather can and does happen anywhere it wants to.
If a tornado touches down in the forest, and no one is there to hear it...
This map (to the right) was in my saved archives and originated from the Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association. Each red dot is the initial point of a tornado spin-up between 1950 and 2006. (tornado paths have been omitted to keep the map from being a mess of solid red lines)
There are some blank areas in the north, but in defense of the tornadoes, places with sparse population would not report any tornadoes that do touch down. There is 1.5 million acres of National Forest across the northern third of the state and communities were isolated in the 1950s and 60s. Hence the title of this section :)
Three new Weather Radio transmitters across the U.P.!!!
WZ-2513 is now operational, broadcasting to the Keneewaw Peninsula and Lake Superior at 100 watts on 162.5 MHz from Copper Harbor, MI.
WNG-683 will be broadcasting to the far western UP from a site near Marinesco at 300 watts on 162.55 MHz.
KJY-76 will be broadcasting to inland areas of the western UP from Crystal Falls at frequency of 162.475 MHz.
These new additions will fill in some gaps in areas that are frequented by winter snowmobilers/skiers and summer fishermen/campers. Warnings, current conditions, and forecasts on all three transmitters will originate in the office of NWS Marquette. Computer-generated coverage maps of all NWS Weather Radio transmitters can be found at this site.
Closer to home. 
If a tornado touches down in the forest, and no one is there to hear it...
Three new Weather Radio transmitters across the U.P.!!!