Anunusual, fast-moving line of severe storms appears to have spawned numeroussmall, short-lived tornadoes across southeast Wisconsin on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries as a result of the storms.
Nearly 22,000 We Energies customers were left without power after the storms rolled across the region. By late afternoon on Wednesday, that number had been reduced to 2,600 customers without power, the Milwaukee-based utility said.
A tornado outbreak in mid-October is unusual for southeast Wisconsin, said Tim Halbach, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan.
"It’s nothing that’s unheard of, but it’s just not as often that we see this kind of activity this time of year," Halbach said. Peak tornado season in southern Wisconsin typically occurs in June, July and August.
Halbach said the weather service was working on Wednesday afternoon to confirm how many tornadoes occurred.
Several of the storms on Wednesday produced what isknown as tornado "debris signatures" on Doppler radar, Halbach said. Those radar images indicate that the storm was lofting debrisinto air as the radar was also detecting anarea of rotating winds.
"We saw a number of those (debris signatures) as the line (of storms) came through," Halbach said.
"Our expectation is that we had a bunch of very weak tornadoes,"Halbach said. "We haven’t had any reports of substantial damage. They were pretty short-lived.
"That is a typical scenario with the weaker-type tornadoes," he added.
At midday on Wednesday, the national Storm Prediction Center said tornadoes had been reported in or nearBrown Deer, Pewaukee, Whitewater, Elkhorn, Franksville and Burlington.
A 73 mph wind gust was reported near Cudahy in Milwaukee Countyand 60 mph gusts were reported near Hartford in Washington County and Delavan in Walworth County.
Residents posted images on social media from throughout the region of snapped and downed trees as well as patio furniture that was blown over andshingles ripped from roofs.
More:13 tornadoes touched down in Wisconsin in one day in June.
The storm system was the result of clashing air masses, with warmmoistair out ahead of a strong cold front that swept through the region.
While forecasters were expecting unsettled weather on Wednesday, they were not expecting a tornado outbreak, Halbach said.
"The ingredients came together for about an hour or two here to produce these short-lived spin-ups," Halbach said. "There was enough wind shear to produce these spin-ups along the cold front.
"We weren't really forecasting tornadoes for today," Halbach added.
There waslittle, if any, lightning with the storms, Halbach said.
Here's thestorm timeline
The first of the tornado warnings was issued late Wednesday morning.Here's an approximatetimeline of the warnings, according to the National Weather Service:
11:28 a.m.: Tornado warning for portions of Jefferson and Waukesha counties.
11:31 a.m.: Tornado warning for Waukesha County. Asevere thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located near Lac La Belle, or 7 miles west of Okauchee Lake, in western Waukesha County, moving east at 35 mph.
11:47a.m.: Tornado warning for Jefferson, Waukesha and Walworth counties. Asevere thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located near Whitewater, moving southeast at 40 mph.
11:52 a.m.: Additional tornado warning issued for Waukesha County.Severe thunderstorms capable of producing a tornado were located along a line extending from near Lisbon to near Palmyra, moving east at 45 mph.
12:02 p.m.:Severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from near Germantown to near East Troy, moving east at 55 mph.
12:07 p.m.: Tornado warning issued for the southern half of Ozaukee County.
12:09 p.m.:Severe thunderstorms capable of producing a tornado were located along a line extending from near Menomonee Falls to Mukwonago, moving northeast at 35 mph.
12:13 p.m.: Tornado warning issued for Waukesha, Racine and Kenosha counties.
12:15 p.m.: Tornado-producing storms were located along a line extending from near Big Bend to Waterford to near Walworth, moving east at 50 mph,the weather service said.
12:28 p.m.: Tornado warning issued for Milwaukee County.
12:37 p.m.:Tornado-producing storms were located along a line extending from near Oak Creek to near Yorkville to Spring Grove, moving east at 45 mph.
12:57 p.m.: Tornado warning issued for Kenosha County.
1:15 p.m.: The last of the tornado warnings was allowed to expire as the storms moved out of the area.
More:It's tornado season in Wisconsin. Here's what you need to know to help keep you and your family safe.
More:13 tornadoes touched down in Wisconsin in one day in June.
The National Weather Service said tornadoes hit Dane, Jefferson, Rock, Grant and Walworth Counties Saturday. The National Weather Service said tornadoes hit Dane, Jefferson, Rock, Grant and Walworth Counties Saturday.
30 Year Normal (1981-2010) is 23 tornadoes per year in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's Worst Tornado occurred on June 12, 1899 in New Richmond in St. Croix County. This tornado killed 117 and injured 125, and destroyed over 300 buildings.
As a colloquial term there are no definitively set boundaries of Tornado Alley, but the area common to most definitions extends from Texas, through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, and eastern portions of Colorado, ...
The two most active states for tornadoes are Texas, with 124, and Kansas, with 87, in an average year. They are both located in the heart of Tornado Alley, a nickname given to an area in the Plains between Central Texas and South Dakota that has some of the most tornadic activity in the world.
The state with the most number of tornadoes classified as "violent", or F4 and F5, is Kentucky, and the state with the highest average intensity ranking for tornadoes is Alabama.
What states don't have tornadoes? Alaska, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C. rarely see tornadoes — they averaged zero tornadoes annually over the last 25 years, according to our analysis of NOAA data.
Tornado Alley is a part of the central United States with a unique combination of geographic and meteorological factors that make it more susceptible to tornadoes. This area encompasses much of northern Texas northward through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri and parts of Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and eastern Colorado.
The National Weather Service says only six tornadoes in Wisconsin match the severity of the EF5. The Journal Sentinel says the 1996 Oakfield tornado caused $40 million in damage, but no deaths. The Barneveld tornado in 1984 took nine lives and injured 200 others.
There has never been an (E)F-6 tornado recorded, but they're technically not impossible. An F-6 tornado would need to reach wind speeds beyond 318 mph; however, the highest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth were 302 mph.
The Tri-State tornado of March 18, 1925, killed 695 people in Missouri (11), Illinois (613), and Indiana (71). The outbreak it occurred with was also the deadliest known tornado outbreak, with a combined death toll of 747 across the Mississippi River Valley.
Dodge, Grant and Dane counties hold the highest number of tornado events in the state, with Dane County holding the record for most at 81 tornadoes from 1950-2014. Southwest Wisconsin near the Mississippi River averages about 1 day per year with a tornado.
It stretches closer to the ground until it eventually meets with that dust cloud. And then, it touches down. In Oklahoma, known as the tornado capital of the world, winds have previously reached a mind boggling 400 kilometres per hour.
The term "Dead man walking" is a phrase used to describe the certain look of some multi-vortex tornadoes. The term is most commonly attributed to the 1997 Jarrell F5 tornado, but has been used to describe multiple other tornadoes: 1974 Xenia, Ohio F5 tornado. 1987 Edmonton, Alberta F4 tornado.
The tornado that struck New Richmond is estimated to be an F5 on the original Fujita scale, and would today be categorized an EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour, making it the third of only six F5 tornadoes ever recorded in Wisconsin.
The Storm Prediction Center says more than 930 tornadoes were reported in the first five months of 2024. This is the fourth most active start to a year on record, and is near the 90th percentile for the last 25-year period, which is well above average.
In addition, a strong supercell in northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin produced that region's first January tornadoes since 1967. EF3 tornado damage in Wheatland, Wisconsin.
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