Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2005

F0 tornado, Comstock to Almena, Wisconsin, June 7, 2005

From Comstock to Almena, this F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Barron County on June 7, 2005, touching down at 4:58 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 7, 2005
Touchdown
4:58 PM CDT (21:58 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Barron County
Touchdown point
45.470, -92.030
Lift-off point
45.450, -92.020
Record number
939

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado was reported by law enforcement and numerous spotters. One storm chaser photographed the tornado. The tornado touched down on the northeast edge of Loon Lake and moved east. It crossed Highway 63 and dissipated shortly after. It moved across open fields and also damaged a number of trees.

The tornado was reported by law enforcement officers and was widely photographed and videotaped. The tornado touched down near 18th Avenue and 5th Street and moved east along 18th Avenue. It moved across open fields, picked up dirt, and damaged some trees.

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

The warnings

10 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:48 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:22 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX
21:48 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningMPX
22:13 UTC22:48 UTCTornado WarningMPX
23:13 UTC00:03 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:08 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.

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. June 7, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2005-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 677 joules per kilogram, CIN -219, lifted condensation level 1465 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2005-06-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
677 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-219 J/kg
Surface CAPE
488 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1465 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 141 km from the path. June 8, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2005-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 395 joules per kilogram, CIN -148, lifted condensation level 2261 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2005-06-08The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 40 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
395 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-148 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1236 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2261 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
163 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rice Lake (RPD), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:15 UTC80.666.2220° 12 kt181006.4
20:35 UTC82.468210° 12 kt1006.4
20:55 UTC82.468180° 10 kt161006.1
21:15 UTC80.669.8180° 8 kt1006.1
21:35 UTC80.669.8200° 10 kt1005.8TS
21:55 UTC80.669.8170° 10 kt141005.1TS
22:15 UTC78.871.6160° 12 kt1004.4-TSRA
22:35 UTC78.869.850° 10 kt141005.1TS
22:55 UTC78.871.6170° 8 kt1004.7TS
23:15 UTC7771.620° 13 kt1005.8-TSRA
23:35 UTC66.266.2140° 7 kt201006.1+TSRA
23:55 UTC69.86890° 9 kt1005.1-TSRA

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

The radar

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:59 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 2005 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 7, 2005

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 74:44 PM CDTF0Barron, WI1.025
June 74:34 PM MDTF1Campbell, WY4.030
June 75:48 PM CDTF0Burnett, WI0.120
June 74:50 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD1.020
June 74:56 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD1.020
June 75:08 PM MDTF0Powder River, MT1.030
June 76:10 PM CDTF0Chippewa, WI5.550
June 75:20 PM MDTF1Fall River, SD0.6130$50,000
June 78:19 PM CDTF0Emmons, ND0.020
June 710:15 PM CDTF1Faulk, SD0.230
June 711:05 PM CDTF0Spink, SD0.010
June 711:07 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.120
June 711:10 PM CDTF0Dickey, ND0.020
June 711:20 PM CDTF1Brown, SD0.130
June 711:35 PM CDTF1Brown, SD0.130

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.