F1 tornado, Waunakee to Madison Truax Arpt, Wisconsin, July 25, 1997

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 mphthis tornado

   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 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.

Rating

F1

Date

July 25, 1997

Touchdown

7:38 PM CDT (00:38 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$130,000

County

Dane County

Touchdown point

43.180, -89.480

Lift-off point

43.180, -89.470

Record number

920

Severe thunderstorms caused scattered tree and power line damage before becoming explosive and dropping two tornadoes in Dane County near Waunakee. Two funnel clouds were also reported. The first tornado moved east-northeast along Highway 19 just west of Waunakee, damaging 3 homes and 2 outbuildings and destroying a barn and a garage. The second, larger tornado, touched down just west of Highway 113 southeast of Waunakee, and then moved east-southeast across a housing development along and near River Road. It eventually crossed the Yahara River swamp area, hopped and skipped across the Cherokee development, and lifted east of W. Sherman Ave in the northern part of Maple Bluff. This second tornado injured 1 person, damaged 17 homes, and 3 farm buildings. One home sustained major damage, and a pole barn was destroyed. After nightfall the storm's forces took the form of damaging lightning, heavy rains and additional destructive winds. The Jefferson County fair closed early due to the storms. Six inches of rain in 3 hours caused urban street flooding in Dane County with standing water 6 to 8 inches deep in roads around Sun Prairie. Later, heavy rain measuring 1.93 inches caused street flooding in Sheboygan (Sheboygan Co) and flooded the basement of the public High School. Also in Sheboygan, lightning struck a home's TV antenna and shorted out an amplifier.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

7 minutes of warning. NWS MKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:31 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:58 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 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.

Madison (MSN), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:35 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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