Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2005
F0 tornado, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, June 9, 2005
This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Winnebago County on June 9, 2005, touching down at 6:40 PM CDT and reaching 40 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.
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
- June 9, 2005
- Touchdown
- 6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 3.0 miles (4.8 km)
- Path width
- 40 yards (37 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Winnebago County
- Touchdown point
- 43.970, -88.480
- Lift-off point
- 44.020, -88.450
- Record number
- 921
What the Weather Service recorded
Thunderstorms that moved into unstable air over east central Wisconsin produced waterspouts on Lake Winnebago, large hail at Oshkosh (Winnebago co.) and a funnel cloud in central Calumet county. One of the waterspouts formed 5 miles southeast of Oshkosh, traveled 3 miles and then dissipated 5 miles east of Oshkosh (Winnebago co.). Another waterspout formed 4 miles northwest of Stockbridge (Calumet co.) but quickly dissipated.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:46 UTC | 00:14 UTC | Tornado Warning | GRB |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 21:04 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.
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z
11.7 hours before the tornado, 61 km from the path. June 9, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 18 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -337 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1269 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 18 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 48 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.0 K/km
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z
0.3 hours after it, 61 km from the path. June 10, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 296 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -114 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 404 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1553 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 27 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 60 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
The surface observations
Oshkosh (OSH), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:53 UTC | 81 | 66 | 330° 3 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 22:53 UTC | 81 | 67 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 23:19 UTC | 78.8 | 60.8 | 350° 8 kt | 1011.5 | VCTS | |
| 23:44 UTC | 68 | 62.6 | 210° 18 kt | 26 | 1013.9 | +TSRA |
| 23:48 UTC | 66.2 | 62.6 | 210° 16 kt | 31 | 1013.9 | +TSRA BR |
| 23:53 UTC | 66 | 63 | 5 kt | 31 | 1014.2 | +TSRA BR |
| 23:57 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1013.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 00:04 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 350° 7 kt | 1013.9 | +TSRA FG | |
| 00:09 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 350° 7 kt | 1013.5 | TSRA BR | |
| 00:13 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 340° 7 kt | 1013.5 | -TSRA BR | |
| 00:33 UTC | 66.2 | 62.6 | 10° 6 kt | 1012.9 | VCTS RA BR | |
| 00:53 UTC | 67 | 65 | 40° 3 kt | 1012.2 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Green Bay radar (KGRB), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:42 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:40 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Se Oshkosh | Winnebago, WI | WATERSPOUT OVER LAKE WINNEBAGO |
| 23:52 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Ese Oshkosh | Winnebago, WI | BOATER SAW WATERSPOUT LIFT OFF WATER SHORTLY AFTER 652 PM. |
| 00:09 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Oshkosh | Winnebago, WI | |
| 00:14 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Nw Stockbridge | Calumet, WI | WATERSPOUT FORMED AGAIN ON LAKE WINNEBAGO MOVING NORTHEAST. |
| 00:29 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 Ssw Potter | Calumet, WI | LOCATION APPROXIMATE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
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 9, 2005
36 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 9 | 6:33 AM CDT | F1 | Iberville Parish, LA | 0.2 | 30 | $180,000 | ||
| June 9 | 4:20 PM CDT | F2 | Graham, KS | 9.5 | 400 | |||
| June 9 | 4:31 PM CDT | F0 | Decatur, KS | 1.5 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 4:45 PM CDT | F0 | Decatur, KS | 0.8 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 4:45 PM CDT | F0 | Graham, KS | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 4:46 PM CDT | F0 | Graham, KS | 0.6 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 5:05 PM CDT | F0 | Rooks, KS | 2.5 | 40 | $30,000 | ||
| June 9 | 5:18 PM CDT | F0 | Trego, KS | 2.0 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 5:25 PM CDT | F1 | Rooks, KS | 9.0 | 60 | $300,000 | ||
| June 9 | 5:34 PM CDT | F1 | Rooks, KS | 6.0 | 90 | $300,000 | ||
| June 9 | 5:57 PM CDT | F1 | Rooks, KS | 4.0 | 50 | $300,000 | ||
| June 9 | 6:00 PM CDT | F3 | Trego, KS | 6.0 | 200 | |||
| June 9 | 6:16 PM CDT | F1 | Trego, KS | 3.5 | 100 | |||
| June 9 | 6:24 PM CDT | F1 | Trego, KS | 4.4 | 100 | |||
| June 9 | 6:25 PM CDT | F3 | Hale, TX | 15.0 | 900 | $300,000 | ||
| June 9 | 6:27 PM CDT | F0 | Pecos, TX | 0.5 | 100 | |||
| June 9 | 6:29 PM CDT | F0 | Brewster, TX | 0.7 | 100 | |||
| June 9 | 6:29 PM CDT | F1 | Trego, KS | 8.2 | 100 | $3.0 million | ||
| June 9 | 6:38 PM CDT | F0 | Meade, KS | 1.3 | 30 | |||
| June 9 | 6:43 PM CDT | F0 | Meade, KS | 1.8 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 6:46 PM CDT | F1 | Meade, KS | 0.8 | 20 | |||
| June 9 | 6:55 PM CDT | F2 | Meade, KS | 9.2 | 200 | |||
| June 9 | 6:57 PM CDT | F0 | Gove, KS | 0.8 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 6:58 PM CDT | F0 | Ellis, KS | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 7:02 PM CDT | F0 | Carson, TX | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 7:14 PM CDT | F0 | Calumet, WI | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 7:14 PM CDT | F0 | Trego, KS | 1.8 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 7:15 PM CDT | F0 | Ellis, KS | 1.8 | 30 | |||
| June 9 | 7:33 PM CDT | F1 | Gove, KS | 1.5 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 8:05 PM CDT | F1 | Meade, KS | 8.0 | 150 | |||
| June 9 | 8:06 PM CDT | F0 | Beaver, OK | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 8:30 PM CDT | F0 | Donley, TX | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| June 9 | 8:47 PM CDT | F0 | Donley, TX | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 9 | 9:30 PM CDT | F0 | Meade, KS | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| June 9 | 9:40 PM CDT | F0 | Crosby, TX | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| June 9 | 10:00 PM CDT | F0 | Dickens, TX | 1.0 | 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.