Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 1996
F1 tornado, Fredonia to Port Washington, Wisconsin, July 18, 1996
From Fredonia to Port Washington, this F1 tornado ran 7.6 miles across Ozaukee County on July 18, 1996, touching down at 8:18 PM CDT and reaching 125 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $300,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- July 18, 1996
- Touchdown
- 8:18 PM CDT (01:18 UTC)
- Path length
- 7.6 miles (12.2 km)
- Path width
- 125 yards (114 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $300,000
- County
- Ozaukee County
- Touchdown point
- 43.480, -87.950
- Lift-off point
- 43.450, -87.820
- Record number
- 589
What the Weather Service recorded
A weak tornado touched down 1 mile NNW of Fredonia and then hopped and skipped to a point .6 miles south of Holy Cross where it intensified from F0 to F1. This tornado continued on the ground ESE near and south of Dixie Road to the Lake Michigan shoreline at a point 3.4 miles NE of Knellsville. It destroyed 4 barns and 3 machine sheds, and 1 garage. It also damaged 6 homes, 1 barn, 3 machine sheds, and 1 garage. There was also crop damage to about 500 acres along its path through rural areas. Several vehicles were also destroyed or damaged. There were no injuries or deaths. Total damage amounts were $300,000 in private/public property and $230,000 for crops. This tornado then became a waterspout as it continued ESE over Lake Michigan.
A weak (F0) tornado touched down 1.6 miles east of the Port Washington airport, just east of I-94, and proceeded to head southeast to the Lake Michigan shoreline at a point 1.8 miles NE of the city of Port Washington. No significant damage was noted. It then moved out over Lake Michigan as a waterspout.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
18 minutes of warning. NWS MKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:00 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01:00 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MKX |
| 01:46 UTC | 02:35 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MKX |
| 01:53 UTC | 02:40 UTC | Tornado Warning | MKX |
| 02:38 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MKX |
| 02:41 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MKX |
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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z
1.3 hours before the tornado, 114 km from the path. July 19, 1996.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2604 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -9 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3471 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 773 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 137 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 181 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.5
- Supercell composite
- 9.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.9 K/km
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z
10.7 hours after it, 114 km from the path. July 19, 1996.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 21 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 618 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -24 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 27 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
The surface observations
Milwaukee/Lawren (MWC), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:50 UTC | 230° 14 kt | 1006.4 | ||||
| 00:50 UTC | 230° 10 kt | 1006.1 | ||||
| 01:50 UTC | 230° 8 kt | 1007.1 | ||||
| 02:50 UTC | 230° 8 kt | 1007.1 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 18, 1996
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 18 | 5:20 PM CDT | F1 | Lincoln, WI | 3.0 | 100 | $90,000 | ||
| July 18 | 6:15 PM CDT | F1 | Green Lake, WI | 2.0 | 125 | |||
| July 18 | 7:05 PM CDT | F2 | Calumet, WI | 6.4 | 200 | 1 | 1 | $450,000 |
| July 18 | 7:05 PM CDT | F5 | Oakfield tornado, WI | 13.3 | 400 | 12 | $40 million | |
| July 18 | 7:07 PM CDT | F0 | Fond du Lac, WI | 1.2 | 75 | |||
| July 18 | 7:10 PM CDT | F0 | Calumet, WI | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| July 18 | 7:25 PM CDT | F0 | Fond du Lac, WI | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| July 18 | 7:27 PM CDT | F0 | Fond du Lac, WI | 0.2 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| July 18 | 7:55 PM CDT | F0 | Fond du Lac, WI | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| July 18 | 8:10 PM CDT | F1 | Sheboygan, WI | 0.9 | 150 | $250,000 | ||
| July 18 | 8:28 PM CDT | F0 | Ozaukee, WI | 0.8 | 75 |
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.