EF1 tornado, Waupun Arpt, Wisconsin, July 10, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

July 10, 2008

Touchdown

6:00 PM CDT (23:00 UTC)

Lifted

6:02 PM CDT (23:02 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Dodge County

Touchdown point

43.607, -88.823

Lift-off point

43.611, -88.804

Record number

0807101700-01

Two rounds of severe weather affected south-central and southeast Wisconsin on July 10th. An initial cluster of storms north of the Milwaukee area in Ozaukee County pulsed to severe limits and generated large hail up to 3/4 inch in diameter during the early afternoon hours. A second round of severe weather was associated with several clusters or short bowing segments of lines of storms that moved west to east across southern Wisconsin during the late afternoon and evening hours. Surface temperatures in the 80s and surface dewpoints in the 60s resulted in CAPE values of 1500 to 2000 while a vorticiy maxima at 500 MB moved across Wisconsin. Veering winds allowed for the development of rotating updrafts in a couple cells that generated two weak tornadoes. Otherwise, the severe weather type was powerful downburst winds.

This weak tornado uprooted 9 large oak trees and damage a barn roof. It spun up just northeast of the intersection of CTH W and CTH F and moved east-northeast across STH 68 near a bend in STH 68, and dissipated just southeast of the intersection of STH 68 and Buckhorn Road. The starting and end lat/long pairs of numbers are: 43.60684/-88.82342 and 43.61147/-88.80410. DI#27 (TH), DOD3. The winds were estimated at 94 mph. The average path width was about 30 yards.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:20 UTC and running to 23:49 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 22:01 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 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.

Juneau (UNU), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:01 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.