April showers have returned to the USA Upper Midwest, and that means thunderstorm season is here.
Here’s what to expect: One evening a spring storm pushed through southern and central Minnesota, and lightning accompanied rain, hail, snow, ice, and high winds. In order to protect the station and computer network from lightning damage, the station was shut down and the antenna disconnected. The station did return to service the next morning – but remember that shutdowns will happen throughout the remaining spring, summer, and fall thunderstorm season, depending on conditions.
W0EQO, located in far northern Minnesota, was not affected, but outages can happen there as well. This sort of thing is to be expected during the spring, summer, and early autumn months.
