Tornadoes and Hail in Wisconsin, January 7, 2008

Name: Tornadoes and Hail in Wisconsin, January 7, 2008
Start: 2008-01-07T10:30
End: 2008-01-07T16:44
Location: Wisconsin

January 7, 2008 · NWS MKX · 11 events in 4 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. 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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 15
Property damage: $22 million
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 11

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.

Very rare, mid-winter, severe storms affected parts of south-central and southeast Wisconsin on January 7th - in the form of two tornadoes and scattered, large, hailstones, and downburst winds. The last time a tornado occurred in January in Wisconsin was on the 24th in 1967 in Green and Rock Counties (25-mile track). On January 7th, a low pressure moved northeast through western Wisconsin, allowing a warm front to push through southern Wisconsin. Temperatures rose into the lower to mid 60s over southeast Wisconsin with surface dewpoints peaking in the mid to upper 50s, resulting in moderate amounts of instablity. Strong, veering winds from the surface to the jet stream level generated sufficient wind shear that supported rotating updrafts in scattered supercell thunderstorms over southeast Wisconsin. A supercell thunderstorm, that had spun up a tornado in northeastern Illinois previously, then crossed the state line into south-central Walworth County (southeast of the city of Walworth) where it intesified and eventually spun up a tornado near Pell Lake that traveled into western Kenosha County. Another supercell spun up a tornado over the northern reaches of the city of Kensoha. Other scattered thunderstorms on this day across south-central and southeast Wisconsin dumped large hail up to 3/4 inch in diameter.

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 Jan 7, 3:38 AM CST, 6 hours 52 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 7, 3:38 AM CST, 6 hours 52 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
338 AM CST MON JAN 7 2008

.DISCUSSION...FCST FOCUS ON DENSE FOG THEN PCPN TRENDS WITH APPCH
WRMFNT AND SFC LOW.

FIRST AND FOREMOST...THE DENSE FOG. SFC TROUGH/DEW POINT FRONT HAS
SHIFTED TO THE EAST OF THE CWA. WEAK NW FLOW HAS ADVECTED LOWER DEW
POINTS INTO THE CWA. FRONTAL ZONE SET UP FROM NRN MO...CNTRL IL INTO
SRN LM. LGT WIND REGIME IN PLACE ACRS CWA SO EVEN WITH DRIER DEW
POINTS...DENSE FOG STILL A PROBLEM AS DEPRESSIONS LESS THAN 2 AND
BL MOISTURE IS HIGH DUE TO SNOWMELT. WITH LOW PRES ORGANZING TO
OUR SW AND HEADING TOWARDS THE CWA...THE SFC WRM FNT WILL APPCH
THE CWA AND SHOULD REINFORCE THE DENSE FOG SITUATION AT LEAST THRU
CURRENT EXPIRATION TIME. WRM FNT PROGGD TO BE BISECTING CWA BY
18Z...SO SOME LOCALES IN THE NORTH AND NE MAY NEED TO BE EXTENDED.

AS FAR AS PCPN TRENDS GO FOR TODAY...ALREADY SEEING CONVECTION FIRE
ACRS SRN WI AND NRN IL ASSOC WITH INCREASING ISENTROPIC ADIABATIC
OMEGA AND UPPER JET DVRG. IN FACT...ISENTROPIC PROGS SHOW GOOD
SURGE OF MOISTURE INTO 18Z TODAY WITH COND PRES DEFICITS DROPPING
TO LESS THAN 10MB. AS SATELLITE AND WATER VAPOR ANIMATION BEARS
OUT...STG UPPER FLOW IN PLACE AND JET CORE DRAWS CLOSER TO CWA
WITH TIME AND UPPER DVRG REALLY BLOSSOMS THIS MRNG AND PEAKS
AROUND 18Z. IN ADDITION H8-H7 MOIST FLUX CONVERGENCE MAXES OUT IN
THIS TIME FRAME AS WELL...SO LOTS GOING FOR PCPN TODAY.

THE LOW WILL PULL THE FRONT THRU THE CWA TNGT WITH HIGHEST POPS IN
THE SE. WITH STILL ANOTHER PIECE OF ENERGY COMING THROUGH TNGT
INTO TUE NEED TO KEEP POPS GOING...AND HIGHEST AGAIN IN THE SE
CLOSER TO THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY. THE GFS/ECMWF AND CANADIAN ARE ALL
SHOWING THE CWA GETTING WET ON TUESDAY WHILE THE NAM AND HPC ARE
GIVING US A GLANCING SHOT. WILL TAKE MIDDLE ROAD AND AT LEAST BACK
DOWN FROM VERY HIGH MAV POPS TO MEET COLLABORATION THRESHOLDS AND
SOME MODEL UNCERTAINTY. WITH THICKNESSES/H8 TEMPS LOWERING ON TUE
WILL HAVE A MIX ACRS PARTS OF THE WEST DURG THE AFTN.

STILL LOOKS BRISK FOR TUE NGT BUT BUFKIT NOT SHOWING AS HIGH OF A
GUST POTENTIAL AS LAST NIGHT. STILL LOOKS LIKE HIGH PRESSURE WILL
DOMINATE FOR WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. GFS AND ECMWF SHOWING
MORE OF A GLANCING SHOT FOR THU AND FRI. POPS ARE LOW AND SEEMS
REASONABLE AT THIS JUNCTURE.

&&
10

.AVIATION...VLIFR CONDITIONS EARLY TO IMPROVE LATER THIS MORNING AS
RAIN/SHOWERS SPREADS RAPIDLY IN AND BOUNDARY LAYER WINDS INCREASE.  MAY
RETURN TO LIFR CIGS/VSBYS OR LWR AGAIN TNGT WITH LIGHT WIND REGIME.

&&

.MARINE...LIKELY ADVECTION OF DENSE FOG INTO NEARSHORE AREAS THIS
MORNING WITH LIGHT WEST WINDS.  HENCE WL POST DENSE FOG ADVY THRU
18Z TO MATCH UP WITH LAND AREAS. LOW LEVEL INVERSION REMAINS STRONG
BUT BOUNDARY LAYER WINDS INCREASE LATER TODAY WHICH SHOULD ALLEVIATE
THE DENSE FOG SITUATION.

&&

.MKX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WI...DENSE FOG ADVISORY UNTIL NOON CST TODAY FOR WIZ046-047-051-052-
     056>060-062>072.

LM...DENSE FOG ADVISORY UNTIL NOON CST TODAY FOR LMZ643>646.

&&

Hazardous weather outlook, Jan 7, 8:55 AM CST, 1 hour 35 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
855 AM CST MON JAN 7 2008

WIZ046-047-051-052-056>060-062>072-081030-
MARQUETTE-GREEN LAKE-FOND DU LAC-SHEBOYGAN-SAUK-COLUMBIA-DODGE-
WASHINGTON-OZAUKEE-IOWA-DANE-JEFFERSON-WAUKESHA-MILWAUKEE-
LAFAYETTE-GREEN-ROCK-WALWORTH-RACINE-KENOSHA-
855 AM CST MON JAN 7 2008

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EAST CENTRAL
WISCONSIN...SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

WIDESPREAD FOG BETWEEN 1 AND 3 MILES WILL CONTINUE ACROSS SOUTHERN
WISCONSIN...WITH PATCHY DENSE FOG REDUCING VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN
1/4 MILE. MORE WIDESPREAD DENSE FOG MAY REDEVELOP TONIGHT.

THERE WILL ALSO BE SCATTERED TO ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. SOME STORMS
MAY PRODUCE SMALL HAIL.

WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CONTINUE TO MELT THE LINGERING SNOW COVER
ACROSS THE REGION. THE MELTING SNOW ALONG WITH EXPECTED RAINFALL
BETWEEN ONE QUARTER INCH AND ONE INCH MAY RESULT IN MINOR AREAL
FLOODING AS WELL AS RIVER FLOODING. ICE JAMES MAY ALSO DEVELOP ON
RIVERS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

THERE IS A CHANCE OF DENSE FOG TUESDAY MORNING.

RIVER LEVELS WILL CONTINUE TO RISE THROUGH MID WEEK DUE TO THE
RAINFALL AND MELTING SNOW. SOME RIVERS WILL REACH BANKFULL...AS
WELL AS FLOOD STAGE LEADING TO AREAS OF RIVER FLOODING.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED.

LMZ643>646-081030-
SHEBOYGAN TO PORT WASHINGTON WI-
PORT WASHINGTON TO NORTH POINT LIGHT WI-
NORTH POINT LIGHT TO WIND POINT WI-
WIND POINT WI TO WINTHROP HARBOR IL-
855 AM CST MON JAN 7 2008

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF LAKE MICHIGAN.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A DENSE FOG ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT THIS MORNING. AREAS OF DENSE FOG
MAY REDEVELOP TONIGHT. THERE IS ALSO A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

AREAS OF DENSE FOG MAY LINGER INTO TUESDAY.

WINDS AND WAVES MAY REACH SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY LEVELS TUESDAY
NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...AND AGAIN THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY.

WWW.WEATHER.GOV/MILWAUKEE

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jan 7, 6:59 AM CST, 3 hours 31 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
659 AM CST MON JAN 07 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0657 AM     HAIL             BENTON                  42.57N 90.38W
01/07/2008  E0.50 INCH       LAFAYETTE          WI   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

&&

MBK

The radar

The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 16:31 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

4 funnel cloud, 3 hail, 3 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Dane

When: January 7, 10:30 AM CST
Where: Dane County, 4 mi SW of Middleton
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: Amateur Radio
Coordinates: 43.059, -89.556

Thunderstorm Wind, Walworth

When: January 7, 3:45 PM CST
Where: Walworth County, 3 mi E of Sharon
Measured: 56 kt (64 mph) estimated gust
Reported by: NWS Storm Survey
Coordinates: 42.500, -88.671

A few large trees were uprooted or damaged east/southeast of Sharon along the state line. This damage was produced by the same supercell that spun up a tornado northeast of Pell Lake in southeast Walworth County.

Hail, Walworth

When: January 7, 4:00 PM CST
Where: Walworth County, Zenda
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: Public
Coordinates: 42.520, -88.480

Tornado, Walworth

When: January 7, 4:02 PM CST to 4:04 PM CST
Where: Walworth County, 2.27 mi NE of Pell Lake to 3.01 mi N of Genoa City Vincent A
Rating: EF1
Path length: 1.75 mi
Path width: 100 yd
Continued into: Kenosha, Wi (MKX)
Property damage: $100,000
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.549, -88.333

This tornado inflicted minor damage on 3 structures and moderate damage on 2 structures in the County of Walworth (homes/pole sheds/barn), and uprooted or damaged a couple dozen trees. It spun up very near a drainage ditch/creek just west of West Court/Center Drive which which branches west from CTH U. This tornado crossed into Kenosha County about 0.4 mile north of where CTH U in Walworth County crosses the county line and becomes CTH F in Walworth County. It contiuned for several miles in western Kenosha County. The average path width was about 50 yards in Walworth County. The winds were estimated at 93 mph (DI 1 - SBO, DOD 5). The specific starting location in Walworth County was 42.54884,-88.33343, and the ending location in Walworth County was 42.56342,-88.30533. Refer to the western Kensoha County tornado event to see a map plot of the entire tornado path.

Tornado, Kenosha

When: January 7, 4:04 PM CST to 4:17 PM CST
Where: Kenosha County, 0.97 mi NNW of Powers Lake to 1.62 mi NNW of Paddock Lake
Rating: EF3
Path length: 9.03 mi
Path width: 200 yd
Injuries: 15 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $14 million
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.563, -88.305

This tornado in western Kenosha County was a continuation of the tornado that spun up 2.27 mils NE of Pell Lake in southeastern Walworth County. It crossed into Kenosha County about 0.4 mile north of where CTH U in Walworth County crosses the county line and becomes CTH F in Walworth County. The tornado continued northeast to just east of the intersection of STH 50 and CTH O, crossed STH 83 just north of 51st Street just north of New Munster Creek, passed through the Village of Wheatland, turned more east and crossed 308th Ave. just north of Peterson Creek, and then dissipated near a pond between CTH PH and 41st Street (Town Rd). Fifteen people in the Civil Town of Wheatland sustained minor injuries. Also in the Civil Town of Wheatland, 7 homes were affected, 25 sustained minor damage, 27 had major damage, and 25 were destroyed. In the Civil Town of Brighton, 10 homes were affected, 3 had minor damage, 3 had major damage, and 4 were destroyed. About 160 people were homeless due to residential damage. This tornado traveled over frozen ponds and creeks, as well as snow piles leftover from recent snowmelt. Average path width was about 100 yards. The wind speed was estimated at 150 to 160 mph (DI 2 - FR12, DOD 8). For a couple homes, the visual damage suggested an EF4 rating, however insufficient anchoring allowed these structures to fail at a lower wind speed. Additionally, other nearby damage indicators didn't support an EF4 rating. The specific starting location in Kenosha County was 42.556342,-88.30533, and the ending location was 42.60061,-88.13524. For plotting purposes, here are a couple mid-point locations of this tornadoe's path: crossing of STH 83 - 42.59297, -88.22230, and the crossing of CTH B - 42.59756, -88.15928.

Hail, Racine

When: January 7, 4:08 PM CST
Where: Racine County, Burlington
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: Public
Coordinates: 42.670, -88.270

Tornado, Kenosha

When: January 7, 4:39 PM CST to 4:43 PM CST
Where: Kenosha County, 2.5 mi SE of Somers to 3.59 mi N of Downtown Kenosha
Rating: EF1
Path length: 2.48 mi
Path width: 75 yd
Property damage: $7.9 million
Reported by: Law Enforcement
Coordinates: 42.624, -87.866

This tornado was the 2nd of two tornadoes to affect southeastern Wisconsin on January 7th. It spun up near the intersection of CTH L (18th St.) and 47th Ave. and moved east/northeast through the northern reaches of the city of Kenosha, and dissipated just north of Carthage College and just short of Lake Michigan. In the Civil Town of Somers it resulted in minor damage to 2 homes, and major damage to one home. In the City of Kenosha, it affected one home, inflicted minor damage to 21 homes, inflicted major damage to 6 homes, and destroyed 5 homes. Additionally, it destroyed one church in the City of Kenosha. Several power-lines were toppled and there were transformer explosions. Dozens of trees were damaged or uprooted. Average path width was about 50 yards. The maximum winds were estimated at around 95 mph (DI 27 - TH, DOD 3). This tornado was photographed and video taped. The specific starting location was 42.62399,-87.86591, and the ending location was 42.63127,-87.81820.

Funnel Cloud, Racine

When: January 7, 4:41 PM CST
Where: Racine County, 2 mi SW of Sturtevant
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.679, -87.928

Funnel Cloud, Racine

When: January 7, 4:42 PM CST
Where: Racine County, 1 mi SW of Sturtevant
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.690, -87.914

Funnel Cloud, Racine

When: January 7, 4:43 PM CST
Where: Racine County, 0.5 mi SSW of Sturtevant
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.693, -87.904

Funnel Cloud, Racine

When: January 7, 4:44 PM CST
Where: Racine County, Sturtevant
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.700, -87.900

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.
Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
Funnel Cloud: A rotating column of cloud extending from a thunderstorm that did not reach the ground.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Wisconsin in 2008 Every state in 2008 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Wisconsin, 2008 Warnings in Wisconsin, January 2008

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: 78407, 78522, 78408, 78401, 78402, 78409, 78403, 78518, 78521, 78519, 78520.