Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 1967

F3 tornado, Dane County, Wisconsin, August 2, 1967

This F3 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Dane County on August 2, 1967, touching down at 3:05 AM GMT-5 and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed 2 people and injured 5, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F3
Date
August 2, 1967
Touchdown
3:05 AM GMT-5 (08:05 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
2
Injuries
5
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Dane County
Touchdown point
43.130, -89.450
Lift-off point
43.120, -89.430
Record number
660

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

8.1 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. August 2, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 1967-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 75 joules per kilogram, CIN -241, lifted condensation level 1291 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 1967-08-02The 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 184 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
75 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-241 J/kg
Surface CAPE
729 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1291 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
184 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
363 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.9 hours after it, 185 km from the path. August 2, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 1967-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 929 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 612 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 1967-08-02The 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 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
929 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
132 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
612 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Madison (MSN), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
07:00 UTC7267180° 5 kt1009.5
08:00 UTC716760° 5 ktTS SHRA
09:00 UTC6563220° 6 kt
10:00 UTC6563160° 5 kt

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 2, 1967

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 24:30 PM GMT-5F0Chariton, MO0.110under $50

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.