Tornadoes

[Trabbz]

Wisconsin is just outside of the true Tornado Alley. Tornadoes can and do happen every summer. I think you are more likely to see funnel clouds then anything. They don't happen frequent enough to worry about.

[Globe199]

I lived in Eau Claire from birth until age 18. In that entire time, I believe we had three tornado "events" go thru EC county, one each in 1980, 82, 94. The tornadoes in 80 and 94 actually did cause fatalities, one and three respectively I think. Yeah, I'm a weather geek.

BTW, the Barneveld tornado wasn't the worst in WI history by far. The one in New Richmond (1899) killed 117 people.

New Richmond Tornado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course, there IS a lot of severe weather. In fact, the most costly severe weather event in state history is my first memory, 15th July 1980. I was two years old.

Western Wisconsin Derecho - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[adam76]

Originally Posted by Globe199

I lived in Eau Claire from birth until age 18. In that entire time, I believe we had three tornado "events" go thru EC county, one each in 1980, 82, 94. The tornadoes in 80 and 94 actually did cause fatalities, one and three respectively I think. Yeah, I'm a weather geek.

We can't talk tornados without mentioning the Stoughton tornado in 2005. That storm was a true anvil shaped supercell, a rare event in Wisconsin. If you recall, photos, mail, and other papers from people in the Stoughton (near Madison) area ended up on the lawns of people in Menomonee Falls!

A tornado is certainly frightening and destructive, but it is a rather rare event in Wisconsin and one of the few natural disasters that can occur here. Our homeowners insurance rates are among the lowest in the nation.

[Hankidan]

Honestly, Tornados aren't that big of a deal here in WI, you're more likley to have em in IL, or a lower state.

[bobbyr54]

I so many people here saying so many things about tornados and some seem to know something about them, but so many know so little. Tornados can occur in any state in any time of the year and in any country on Earth, but the United States as by far more tornados than any single country, on average 1,000 per year. The United States has more tornados and severe thunderstorms than the rest of the world perhaps combined. And Florida leads the list on thunderstorms and lightning strikes. The U.S. is the only nation on Earth is ideally located for these ferocious storms to form, and especially the central states. There at least 4 or 5 reasons for this; the geography of the country. We have the cold air masses up in Canada to move south, warm and humid air to move up from the Carribean and Gulf of Mexico, and the warm dry air from the desert southwest. We have the Appalachians to the east and the Rockies to the west that channel all these airmasses right into the center of the country. In fact, the Rockies themselves created the deserts and the hot dry airmasses. As westerly winds blow in from the Pacific, the mountains force the air up and over. As this air moves up the western slopes it cools to the points where can't hold moisture anymore and drops it as rain or snow. However, after on eastern slopes as the air mass descends it is devoid of the moisture and heats up. As the winds flow in to the central part of the country, the warm moist air from flows north and meets with the dry air from the west. This warm mixes and begins to rotate horizontally. Cold air comes south, colides and speeds up the rotation as the cold air is heavier and pushes underneath. As the thunderstorm gains strength more air is drawn in. As the winds rush in and continue to build, the stronger winds lift this horizontal rotation into a vertical rotation and the thunderstorm begins to rotate, forming a wall cloud. As the airflow continues to build and the updrafts the clouds will continue to grow in height, but if upper winds are too strong allow for much vertical lift and a tornado will not form as the tops the clouds are sheared off forming that anvil top whiches very common if you happen to see them in the distance. If the upper wind are weak or weaken, or the updrafts are strong enough to break through that barrier then you will likely have a tornado. I have once about 25 years ago seen one of those thunder clouds that spawned several tornado just south of Stanley, WI. The updrafts were so strong that top of this cloud built up to probably 50,000 feet or more and had punched through 5 layers of strong upper winds.

Tornados are rated on a scale developed by a Dr. Fujita hence, the F (Fujita) scale. The scale ranges for the severity of tornados from F-0 to a possible F-6. Yes, there is an F-6, however they would probably be so rare and damage done by F-4's and F-5's would be so devestating that will be next to impossible to pick out the evidence for 318+ mph winds. Plus it would be concentrated in such a small area that maybe the only way to detect these super intense winds is by swirl patterns on the ground amongst the debris of F-4 and the F-5 winds. 3's, 4's and 5's cause the worse damage and are responsible for the largest percentage of deaths even though they make up the smallest percentages of occurances tornados. F-0 have the weakest winds of all and are in the range of wind speed of a tropical storm before it even becomes a hurricane an F-1 starts just below the level of when a tropical storm becomes a hurricane which is 74 mph, F-1 winds begin at 73 mph and can cause some structural damages to weak buildings, while F-0 winds are from 40-72 mph. At the lower end an F-0 may not do any damage at all except to trees and may rip shingles of roofs at the upper end as well as many signs. Tornados are not classified until weather experts are on the ground and examine the damage done. So what could be classified an F-4 if it hits a city might only be classified as an F-3 or even a 2 out in open country. I have lived here in the area of Stanley most of my life and I have experienced at least 4 maybe 5 or even 6 tornados. In 1969, on my brother's 11th birthday, and F-1 hit our farm, and only our farm. No other farm in any direction suffered any damage at all. It left our barn intact, because a stronger new addition helped out, but the doors on our haymow were gone. One complete door was never seen by anybody, pieces of another was found in a neighbors yard 2 miles away. Hayfields layed flat wagons pushed around fields doing weird things that normally just don't happen. I have seen after effect of F-0's with the top of a tree missing, nowhere to be found. In another, a tree with all other trees around it perfectly fine, but one branch that interferred with my lawn mowing as was going to cut off was gone, and it the damage to that branch showed it was twisted off. It was to soon after I been there before for someone else to have done it, and also it was too large of a branch that any human would have the strength too remove it by twisting it off.
So tornados can happen anywhere any time, Madison, Milwaukee (even downtown or Mitchell Intl. Airport) not to mention right out on Lake Michigan itself. And it is not a waterspout. I am sick and tired of people calling waterspouts on water tornados on land. Call them for what they are, they're all tornados even ones called dust devils or whirlwinds I choose to classify as weak tornados. I don't care if there isn't a cloud. They are still formed under some of the basic conditions, as I have seen one when working in a fire that it built into a monster that could be classified as a very strong
F-0. It ripped branches off trees, a column of dust, paper, cans and contents from a nearby landfill near Eau Claire rose to thousands of feet into the air. At ground level it was maybe 100 feet in diameter and maybe more. As it approached my tower and crossed into the clearing where my tower was it picked up tires and tree stumps tossing them about a little bit. It hit my tower my and shook it so bad, I thought the tower might go down with me in it. The with all swung wide open and all dust and dirt and lose papers and such things were sucked out of the tower. I was sand blasted. It passed by and did some more wierd things until it died out in the trees on the otherside of clearing. The path was near a mile long and at least 100 feet wide and it lasted for near half an hour. If that is not a small tornado than nobody knows what a real tornado is.