F2 tornado, Gilman, Wisconsin, September 2, 2002

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.

Rating

F2

Date

September 2, 2002

Touchdown

5:10 PM CDT (22:10 UTC)

Path length

17.0 miles (27.4 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3.9 million

County

Taylor County

Touchdown point

45.180, -90.820

Lift-off point

45.130, -90.500

Record number

273

A tornado touched down about a mile northwest of Gilman (Taylor County) and moved southeast into the village a couple minutes later. A few trees and homes were lightly damaged before the tornado hit the Gilman school. The roof was blown off the school gymnasium, where the high school football team had been seeking cover a minute before moving into the hallways and interior rooms. Debris was blown from the school onto the nearby football field and into homes east of Gilman. The tornado kept tracking southeast into the Chequamegon National Forest, producing occasional house damage and knocking down hundreds of trees. The path of the storm crossed Trucker Lane, Winter Sports Road and damaged several homes near Sawyer Avenue as it increased in size and strength. The worst damage was when the top story of a two story house was completely removed along Sawyer Avenue shortly before the tornado dissipated before crossing Highway 64 west of Medford (Taylor County). There were no reports of deaths or injuries. This was the first confirmed tornado in Taylor County since July 30, 1977.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS ARX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:36 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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.

Medford (MDZ), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.