The weather is often the subject of small talk. But for a group of meteorologists near Dousman, Wisconsin, the weather isn’t just something to talk about with neighbors or co-workers. It’s their life’s work.
The National Weather Service's (NWS) office in Milwaukee and Sullivan tracks all the weather in our area. From severe thunderstorms or tornadoes to calm and warm temperatures, this team helps us plan our days. Every weather alert on your phone or forecast you see on television in the southeast Wisconsin area uses data that comes from this office and others across the region.
Tim Hallbach is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin.
He says, "We are part of the federal government. We're the baseline for getting warnings out and letting people know when this all comes through. We don't make any more money if there's really bad weather or anything like that. It's just kind of our opinion and our take on the weather scenario and what we think is gonna end up happening."
And when you walk up to the office, you first see what Hallbach calls a giant floating white soccer ball in the sky—also known as their Doppler radar, which tracks any storms in southern Wisconsin.
Growing up in Fond du Lac, Tim Hallbach knew he was different from his friends. So when storms started brewing, he would stand outside watching the action with his dad.
"I was in high school when the Oakfield tornado happened — the last F5 tornado that happened in Wisconsin. So I watched that whole tornado go to the south of where I live just a few miles away," Hallbach recalls. "And I knew something was different about me at that point because my friends were waiting for me to play Euchre. And they kept on calling me like, 'Hey, can you get over here? You know, we're waiting for your fourth.' And I'm like, I'm watching this tornado right now ... aren't you guys interested in this? and they were like, 'No, get over here.'"
Now as a professional meteorologist, Hallbach surveys tornado damage to document what happened and talks to the people affected.
In 2021, multiple tornados touched down in Jefferson County, and these cyclones had gusts up to 110 miles per hour. Hallbach recalls talking to a family who heeded the warning from the NWS forecast.
"[The] family went to the basement and had just like a game night," he says. "So storms came through — tornado hit their house, and if they had been in their bedrooms up in the top floor of their house, they might have been injured or kids might have been hurt."
The team in Sullivan are helped by Wisconsinites across the state and every spring, the National Weather Service office hosts free storm spotting classes in the spring.
Hallbach appreciates the help of all weather enthusiasts in the state. "We have people that help out with just rainfall measurements and snowfall measurements," he says.
These measurements help the office predict what happens with the rivers or how much snow needs to be plowed. The next class in Milwaukee County will be on April 27, 2023. More information for future free courses is available here.
Even if he wasn't a weather forecaster, Hallbach knows he would be still connected to the sky.
"It doesn't feel like a job a lot of the time because we are looking at stuff that we'd probably be looking at home even if we weren't meteorologists. But the part where we get to keep people safe is probably the biggest part of it," he says.
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