Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 1958

F4 tornado, Eau Claire, Clark and Marathon counties, Wisconsin, June 4, 1958

This F4 tornado ran 59.2 miles across Eau Claire, Clark and Marathon counties on June 4, 1958, touching down at 8:30 PM GMT-5 and reaching 880 yards wide. It killed 4 people and injured 3, and did $500,000 to $5 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mphthis tornado

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F4
Date
June 4, 1958
Touchdown
8:30 PM GMT-5 (01:30 UTC)
Path length
59.2 miles (95.3 km)
Path width
880 yards (805 m)
Deaths
4
Injuries
3
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Eau Claire, Clark and Marathon counties
Touchdown point
44.770, -91.270
Lift-off point
44.900, -90.070
Record number
207

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z

1.5 hours before the tornado, 207 km from the path. June 5, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 1958-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 108 joules per kilogram, CIN -432, lifted condensation level 1401 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 1958-06-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 108 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
108 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-432 J/kg
Surface CAPE
148 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1401 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z

10.5 hours after it, 207 km from the path. June 5, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 1958-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 8 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 769 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 1958-06-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -97 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
8 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
38 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
769 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-97 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1958 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 4, 1958

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 45:20 PM GMT-5F2Stearns, MN13.34002$50,000 to $500,000
June 45:20 PM GMT-5F1Stearns, MN0.1101under $50
June 45:20 PM GMT-5F0Stearns, MN0.110under $50
June 44:25 PM GMT-7F0Cascade, MT0.110under $50
June 46:30 PM GMT-5F5Colfax tornado, WI33.78802174$5 million to $50 million
June 47:45 PM GMT-5F4Chippewa, WI11.1600350$50,000 to $500,000
June 48:00 PM GMT-5F1Seward, NE0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 48:00 PM GMT-5F3Chippewa, WI4.33003$500,000 to $5 million
June 49:10 PM GMT-5F2Rusk, WI13.8200$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.