F1 tornado, Milwaukee Mtchell Ar, Wisconsin, March 8, 2000

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

March 8, 2000

Touchdown

6:10 PM CST (00:10 UTC)

Path length

1.7 miles (2.7 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

16

Property damage

$4.6 million

County

Milwaukee County

Touchdown point

42.950, -87.900

Lift-off point

42.970, -87.850

Record number

73

After several days of record-breaking warmth, the stage was set for an out-of-season severe weather outbreak across southcentral and southeast Wisconsin. The city of Milwaukee recorded it's earliest tornado ever (just before sunset), and an extremely large number of reports of large hail from 3/4 to 1.75 inches in diameter were relayed to the NWS Sullivan office. Most of the thunderstorms developed gusty winds on the order of 30 to 50 mph, but one managed to generate a gust of 58 knots (67 mph) at the TV-4 station on the north side of Milwaukee. The thunderstorm which dumped large hail 7 N of Portage also had winds that uprooted some trees and blew a car off of Inerstate 39. An earlier thunderstorm that affected the west side of the city of Portage left the ground white with golf-ball size hail that also shattered several vehicle windshields. The thunderstorm that affected Wisconsin Dells also left the ground white with hail. The Milwaukee tornado spun up about 1/2 mile east/northeast of the terminal building of General Mitchell International Airport, just east of Runway 19, moved northeast and crossed East Layton Avenue just east of South Pennsylvania Avenue in Cudahy, continued northeast through St. Francis, and dissipated over the northwest corner of Nathanael Greene Park. Apparently the tornado wasn't strong enough to cause any damage on the airport grounds, but it did cause considerable damage in Cudahy and St. Francis. Fifty-three (53) residental homes sustained minor damage and eleven (11) had major damage. Eight (8) businesses sustained major damage. Many motor vehicles were over-turned, several roofs were partially peeled off of homes, power lines and trees were toppled, and gas leaks were reported. Sixteen (16) people were injured enough to require medical treatment (lacerations), but there were no fatilities. Most of the people who were injured were in their vehicles. Based on this damage, it is estimated that maximum wind speeds of this tornado were 105 to 110 mph. The airport terminal building and control tower went on emergency power after commercial power was disrupted. Airport control tower officials were able to divert airplane traffic, consequently there were no aircraft mishaps. Preceding the tornado, there were reports of large hail and some tree damage in the forward flank downdraft of the parent thunderstorm over St. Francis and the southern part of the city of Milwaukee. The tornado was extensively photographed and captured on video tape. It briefly displayed multiple-vortex characterisitics. The last time a tornado was documented in Milwaukee County was in May, 1989.NWS Sullivan meteorologists speculate that an outflow boundary was pushed northwest to the airport area from a thunderstorm that earlier moved through the southeast corner of Milwaukee County. This outflow boundary may have focused low-level vorticity that helped generate the tornado. The parent thunderstorm possessed a mesocyclone. Synoptically, a deep low pressure was moving northeast through central Iowa toward northern Wisconsin. This movement put southern Wisconsin in a "dry slot" associated with strong jet stream winds aloft. The combination of surface dewpoints in the lower to mid 50s, strong speed shear between surface winds out of the south and southwest mid-level winds, sufficient instability due to daytime heating/temperatures in the 70s, and cold air aloft allowed thunderstorms to grow to 40,000 feet. Several thunderstorms had supercell characturistics, but only one was assoicated with a tornado, and another with a funnel cloud. Thunderstorm movement was northeast at 50 to 60 mph (about 47 to 51 knots).

Narrative can be found below in summary of March 8, 2000.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 19:58 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

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.