Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 1990

F2 tornado, Barron County, Wisconsin, September 11, 1990

This F2 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Barron County on September 11, 1990, touching down at 6:10 PM CDT and reaching 2,500 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 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
September 11, 1990
Touchdown
6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
2,500 yards (2286 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Barron County
Touchdown point
45.430, -91.650
Lift-off point
45.430, -91.580
Record number
1021

The warnings

13 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:57 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:58 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX
22:57 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningMPX
23:31 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningMPX
00:16 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningMPX
00:58 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningMPX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:40 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Minneapolis, MN (KSTC), 12:00Z

11.2 hours before the tornado, 169 km from the path. September 11, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 1990-09-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 35 joules per kilogram, CIN -211, lifted condensation level 793 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, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 1990-09-11The 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 193 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939Sfc1 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
35 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-211 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
793 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
193 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KSTC), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 169 km from the path. September 12, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 1990-09-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2675 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 1580 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, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 1990-09-12The 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 159 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
2675 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3668 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1580 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
278 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
18.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 11, 1990

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 1112:25 PM CDTF0Medina, TX0.210
September 113:00 PM CDTF0Walton, FL0.210$50 to $500
September 114:45 PM CDTF2Barron, WI1.5100$50,000 to $500,000
September 114:50 PM CDTF1Barron, WI0.550$50,000 to $500,000
September 117:00 PM CDTF1Barron, WI0.550$5,000 to $50,000

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.