Barn near Whitewater sustains damage from possible ‘gustnado’

The National Weather Service will head to Whitewater today to investigate a possible gustnado or landspout that may have hit a barn there Wednesday afternoon. 

Weak showers were moving across southeastern Wisconsin Wednesday afternoon and likely interacted with the lake breeze boundary, causing damage to a barn.

Officials from the weather service said the incident only lasted for a minute or two, but it may have scattered debris up to a mile. Officials said the gustnado started near the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 89 and U.S. Highway 12, and went southeast to the intersection of Anderson and Clover Valley road.

News 3 meteorologist Haddie McLean said this weather feature is not something that is able to be detected by radar. “A gustnado and landspout are both small-scale circulations that typically cause limited damage,” said McLean.  “The circulation originates at ground level, not at the cloud level from a wall cloud or mesocyclone.”