Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2007

EF0 tornado, Jackson, Wisconsin, June 2, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Washington County on June 2, 2007, touching down at 2:19 PM CDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
June 2, 2007
Touchdown
2:19 PM CDT (19:19 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Washington County
Touchdown point
43.292, -88.186
Lift-off point
43.292, -88.186
Record number
0706021319-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated severe weather affected Washington County on June 2nd as a line of thunderstorms moved north/northeast through southern Wisconsin. On this day, an upper-level,cut-off low pressure was drifting slowly east through Minnesota. Sufficient vertical wind shear was present in spiral bands of convection in order to generate rotating updrafts in some cells.

A brief, weak tornado spun up about 2.12 miles south-southwest (198 degrees) of the city of Jackson, or about 2.4 miles north of the village of Richfield (just west of STH 45), or about 0.23 miles southwest (225 degrees) of the STH 45 overpass with Western Ave. It was stationary during its 20-30 seconds life-span, based on trained spotter accounts. It resulted in only matted-down grasses. No EF-Scale Damage Indicator (DI) could be used. Specific lat/lon info is: N43.29313 W88.19027. Estimated average path width was about 20 yards. Estimated wind speed is 56-61 knots (65-70 mph).

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.

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:41 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

7.3 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. June 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2007-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 150 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 713 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2007-06-02The 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 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 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
150 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
713 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 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

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 132 km from the path. June 3, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2007-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 297 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 694 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2007-06-03The 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 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.193958Sfc1 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
297 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
323 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
694 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:17 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 2007 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 2, 2007

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 26:35 PM CDTEF0Lyon, MN0.5100
June 27:55 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.230
June 28:15 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX4.0300
June 28:45 PM CDTEF0Hancock, IL0.125$5,000
June 29:14 PM CDTEF0Lamb, TX0.1100
June 210:34 PM CDTEF0Garza, TX0.8100
June 210:35 PM CDTEF0Lamb, TX1.5100
June 210:40 PM CDTEF0Hockley, TX0.8100
June 211:03 PM CDTEF0Hockley, TX1.075$15,000
June 212:40 AM CDTEF0Gaines, TX1.050

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.