Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2004
F0 tornado, Wyocena, Wisconsin, July 16, 2004
This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Columbia County on July 16, 2004, touching down at 2:40 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
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
- F0
- Date
- July 16, 2004
- Touchdown
- 2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $1,000
- County
- Columbia County
- Touchdown point
- 43.470, -89.330
- Lift-off point
- 43.450, -89.320
- Record number
- 313
What the Weather Service recorded
Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed continuously throughout the day as a surface trough pushed into south-central and southeast Wisconsin. Several of these storms pulsed to severe levels and produced damaging winds and large hail. Trees and power lines were toppled by the powerful winds. In addtion, several funnel clouds were reported across Columbia, Jefferson, Dodge, Washington, and Fond du Lac county, and one weak tornado spun up 2.6 miles southwest of Wyocena and dissipated at 5.5 miles northeast of Poynette. Refer to the individual tornado report for more details. Numerous reports of trees damage were noted as a result from damaging winds from Sauk County, to Dane, Columbia, and Marquette counties. More damage resulted when hail pelted cars across parts of Sauk, Dane, Green, and Waukesha counties. Two to three inches of rain fell within a two hour timespan (WSR-88D estimate) resulting in urban flooding in the Middleton to Madison area. Brief water depths of 1 to 3 feet slowed traffic or stalled cars.
A weak F0 tornado (60 to 70 mph) spun up 2.6 miles southwest of Wyocena and traveled south-southeast for about one-half mile to a point about 5.5 miles northeast of Poynette. Specifically, it spun up about 0.4 mile north of the intersection of Phillips Rd. and Langdon Rd., and ended about 0.3 mile southeast of the same intersection. Trees were uprooted and crops were damaged. Some lawn furniture and other personal belongings were damaged.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Madison (MSN), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:39 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 16, 2004
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 16 | 3:04 AM CDT | F0 | Clay, MO | 0.5 | 50 |
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.