Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2005

F0 tornado, Tilden, Wisconsin, June 7, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 5.5 miles across Chippewa County on June 7, 2005, touching down at 6:10 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)
Path length
5.5 miles (8.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Chippewa County
Touchdown point
45.000, -91.600
Lift-off point
44.980, -91.520
Record number
940

What the Weather Service recorded

This tornado was reported by a trained spotter. It touched down just west of a wooded area where many trees were felled. It then moved across open fields, crossed County Road F, and dissipated after hitting a small grove of trees. The tornado was accompanied by a strong rear flank downdraft. Three miles south of the tornado's path a wind gust of 82 MPH was recorded (about 10 miles west northwest of Chippewa Falls).

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

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:05 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:38 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX
23:05 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningMPX
23:48 UTC00:18 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX
00:42 UTC05:45 UTCFlash Flood 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

11.2 hours before the tornado, 161 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°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

0.8 hours after it, 161 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°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

Eau Claire (EAU), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:56 UTC8569140° 13 kt1004.7
22:56 UTC8367130° 10 kt181004.1VCTS
23:42 UTC71.666.2280° 33 kt481004.7+TSRA
23:56 UTC6661360° 20 kt571007.5+TSRA
00:12 UTC66.264.440° 19 kt1005.8+TSRA BR
00:16 UTC66.262.660° 17 kt231004.7+TSRA BR
00:19 UTC66.262.670° 17 kt231004.7TSRA BR
00:37 UTC66.264.450° 11 kt1004.4VCTS
00:41 UTC66.262.650° 10 kt1005.1VCTS
00:56 UTC6763 4 kt231005.4TS

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

The radar

The La Crosse radar (KARX), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:09 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 74:58 PM CDTF0Barron, WI2.025
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 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.