Hail, Green
- When
- October 23, 9:10 PM CST
- Where
- Green County, Juda
- Measured
- 0.75 in hail
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.583, -89.500
Flood and Hail in Wisconsin, October 23 to 24, 2001
Rare, out-of-season severe thunderstorms, with up to golf-ball to baseball-size hail, pelted parts of southern Wisconsin during the overnight hours of October 23, 2001. ).
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $150,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 14
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS MKX wrote it up.
Rare, out-of-season severe thunderstorms, with up to golf-ball to baseball-size hail, pelted parts of southern Wisconsin during the overnight hours of October 23, 2001. The storms cut a swath from southern Green County to the Janesville/Beloit area in Rock County, to the area east of Elkhorn (Walworth Co.), to the southern part of the city of Racine (Racine Co.). The largest hailstones, and consequently the greatest amount of damage, occurred in the southern part of city of Racine. In Racine, many vehicles were dented, several skylight windows were smashed, the roofs of several residential homes were damaged, and one sunroom was demolished by the large hailstones. Eyewitness reports indicated that the hailstorm duration was about 15 to 20 minutes as a series of thunderstorm cells trained west to east across the same part of the city. Consequently, rainfalls of about 1.50 inches occurred, based on WSR-88D Doppler radar estimates. Newspapers reported that 2.80 inches of rain fell in the city of Janesville, but there were no reports of flooding. Rain-water accumulated into a 3 to 4 foot deep river on Kearney Ave. in the city of Racine, which stalled a couple cars and then spilled over into several basements. Two people had to climb onto the roof of their vehicle. The rain-water accumulation was due to hail-striped leaves clogging storm sewers. This same rain-water river washed hail into mounds 1 to 2 feet deep on Kearney Ave, forcing local residents to shovel and snow-blow the hail to the side. A couple city roads had to be plowed! A two-apartment home in the city of Racine was severely damaged when its basement wall collapsed due to urban flooding triggered by the heavy rains and leave-clogged storm sewers. Six people were evacuated from the building. The monetary damage amount assigned to the hailstorm in Racine is an estimate based on newspaper accounts. Synoptically, the hailstones were the result of elevated convection north of warm front that was over northern Illinois. The warm front extended back to a low pressure over central Minnesota. South of the warm front, surface dewpoints were in the lower 60s. WSR-88D Doppler imagery indicated that several of the thundestorms had mesocyclones extending from about 7000 to 20,000 feet AGL, but there was only one funnel cloud report.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Milwaukee, WI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 23, 2:30 PM CST, 6 hours 40 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Oct 23, 2:30 PM CST, 6 hours 40 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI 330 PM CDT TUE OCT 23 2001 FCST FOCUS ON PRECIP CHANCES AND SURGE OF CAA. SFC ANALYSES HAVE BEEN SHOWING A CONSISTENT 3-4 MB FALLS ACROSS SD TODAY AS SHORT WAVE TROUGH TRACKS ACROSS MT. AS LOW APPROACHES WI BY 12Z A 25-30 KT LLJ WILL SET UP OVER SRN WI WITH SOME THETAE ADVECTION INTO CWA. NOT NEARLY AS STRONG AS LAST NIGHT AND LESS MOISTURE SO CHANCE POPS WILL COVER IT. MODELS CONTINUE TO SHOW BOMBOGENSIS OVER NRN GRTLKS AND CANADA WED NT. BEFOREHAND...UPPER TROUGH WILL DIG SEWD TONIGHT AND THEN LIFT NEWD ON WED VIA A 120 KT JET. WITH CYCLOGENSIS CONTINUING AND CONTINUED CAA INTO UPPER TROUGH...THE UPPER TROUGH WILL BECOME NEGATIVE TILT WITH MAIN VORT MAX TRACKING ACROSS EITHER NRN IL OR SRN WI. AS INCREASING DIFF CVA AND LT FNT QUAD OF JET CATCHES UP TO FRONT...WIDESPREAD PRECIP SHOULD DEVELOP VIA MODEL QPF. THE CATCHING UP OF THE UPPER TROUGH TO THE FRONT SHOULD OCCUR IN TIME FOR LIKELY TO CATEGORICAL POPS ACROSS CWA. CATEGORICAL POPS IN EAST WHERE CONFIDENCE IS HIGH AND 60 POPS IN WEST WHERE MORE UNCERTAINTY LIES. STRONG COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS CWA WED AFT...BUT STRONGEST CAA TO OCCUR WED NT AS BOMBOGENESIS OCCURS IN SRN CANADA. WINDY CONDITIONS WILL DEVELOP AND THICKNESSES WILL DROP TO 531 DM BY THU MORNING. WITH A MOIST BL COMBINED WITH CYCLONIC FLOW AND EXPECTED ROUNDS OF WK VORT LOBES AND SFC TROFS PASSING THROUGH CWA...30 POPS ARE WARRANTED FROM WED NT THROUGH FRI. EXPECT A MIX OF RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS. GUIDANCE TEMPS LOOK GOOD BUT A LITTLE TOO WARM ON FRI IN THE EAST. .MKX...NONE. MG
The radar
The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 03:07 UTC.
Event by event
12 hail, 1 funnel cloud, 1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail, Green
- When
- October 23, 9:19 PM CST
- Where
- Green County, Browntown
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.583, -89.817
Hail, Green
- When
- October 23, 9:25 PM CST
- Where
- Green County, Brodhead
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.617, -89.367
Hail, Green
- When
- October 23, 9:35 PM CST
- Where
- Green County, 4 mi S of Monroe
- Measured
- 1 in hail
- Reported by
- TRAINED SPOTTER
- Coordinates
- 42.550, -89.633
Hail, Rock
- When
- October 23, 9:36 PM CST
- Where
- Rock County, Orfordville
- Measured
- 0.88 in hail
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.633, -89.250
Hail, Rock
- When
- October 23, 9:57 PM CST
- Where
- Rock County, 2 mi E of Afton
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.600, -89.033
Hail, Walworth
- When
- October 23, 10:05 PM CST
- Where
- Walworth County, 5 mi NNE of Darien
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Reported by
- TRAINED SPOTTER
- Coordinates
- 42.667, -88.667
Hail, Rock
- When
- October 23, 10:06 PM CST
- Where
- Rock County, Avalon
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.633, -88.867
Funnel Cloud, Rock
- When
- October 23, 10:09 PM CST
- Where
- Rock County, 2 mi WSW of Shopiere
- Reported by
- TRAINED SPOTTER
- Coordinates
- 42.671, -89.072 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Hail, Walworth
- When
- October 23, 11:00 PM CST
- Where
- Walworth County, 3 mi NNE of Lyons
- Measured
- 1 in hail
- Reported by
- TRAINED SPOTTER
- Coordinates
- 42.683, -88.333
Hail, Racine
- When
- October 23, 11:15 PM CST
- Where
- Racine County, Burlington
- Measured
- 0.75 in hail
- Reported by
- AMATEUR RADIO
- Coordinates
- 42.667, -88.267
Hail, Kenosha
- When
- October 23, 11:29 PM CST
- Where
- Kenosha County, 2 mi ENE of Paris
- Measured
- 0.75 in hail
- Reported by
- AMATEUR RADIO
- Coordinates
- 42.650, -88.017
Hail, Racine
- When
- October 23, 11:45 PM CST
- Where
- Racine County, Racine
- Measured
- 2.75 in hail
- Property damage
- $100,000
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 42.717, -87.800
Flood, Racine
- When
- October 24, 1:00 AM CST to 7:00 AM CST
- Where
- Racine County, Racine
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Reported by
- EMERGENCY MANAGER
- Coordinates
- 42.730, -87.812 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
What these are
- Hail
- Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
- Funnel Cloud
- A rotating column of cloud extending from a thunderstorm that did not reach the ground.
- Flood
- Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornado in Missouri, October 23, 2001
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Missouri, October 23, 2001
- High Wind in Nebraska, October 23, 2001
- High Wind in Washington, October 23, 2001
- Flooding in Iowa, October 23, 2001
- High Wind in Washington, October 23, 2001
- High Wind in Washington, October 23, 2001
- High Wind in Washington, October 23, 2001
- High Wind in Oregon, October 23, 2001
- Hail in Missouri, October 23, 2001
- Hail in Illinois, October 23 to 24, 2001
- Heavy Snow in Montana, October 23 to 24, 2001
More
Every storm in Wisconsin in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Wisconsin, October 2001
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5269924, 5269925, 5269926, 5269929, 5269927, 5269928, 5269932, 5269930, 5269931, 5269933, 5269935, 5269936, 5269934, 5269937.