Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 1979

F2 tornado, Oconto County, Wisconsin, June 16, 1979

This F2 tornado ran 15.2 miles across Oconto County on June 16, 1979, touching down at 10:30 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F2
Date
June 16, 1979
Touchdown
10:30 AM CDT (15:30 UTC)
Path length
15.2 miles (24.5 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Oconto County
Touchdown point
44.880, -88.300
Lift-off point
44.980, -88.020
Record number
344

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), 12:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 50 km from the path. June 16, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 1979-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 582 joules per kilogram, CIN -118, lifted condensation level 1008 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 1979-06-16The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
582 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-118 J/kg
Surface CAPE
227 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1008 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.5 hours after it, 50 km from the path. June 17, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 1979-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 594 joules per kilogram, CIN -125, lifted condensation level 1457 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 1979-06-17The 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 230 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
594 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-125 J/kg
Surface CAPE
930 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1457 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
230 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
379 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1979 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 1979

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 165:27 AM CDTF1McCook, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 166:15 AM CDTF1Pipestone, MN0.380$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:45 AM CDTF0Pipestone, MN0.150$5,000 to $50,000
June 164:00 PM CDTF1Eau Claire, WI17.6100$500,000 to $5 million
June 164:30 PM CDTF1Lincoln, WI0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 164:40 PM CDTF1Lincoln, WI0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 167:46 PM MDTF0Laramie, WY0.160
June 167:50 PM MDTF2Cheyenne, CO3.0200$500,000 to $5 million
June 1612:30 AM CDTF1Graham, KS4.933$500,000 to $5 million

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.