Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2009
EF0 tornado, Milton Jct, Wisconsin, June 23, 2009
This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Rock County on June 23, 2009, touching down at 8:09 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $8,000 of property damage.
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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 23, 2009
- Touchdown
- 8:09 PM CDT (01:09 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:11 PM CDT (01:11 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.4 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $8,000
- County
- Rock County
- Touchdown point
- 42.799, -88.984
- Lift-off point
- 42.795, -88.968
- Record number
- 0906231909-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A single isolated cell developed quickly in the Edgerton area of north-central Rock County, moved east-southeast, and produced a weak landspout-type tornado and wind damage northwest of the Milton area.
An isolated thunderstorm cell quickly developed and spun up a weak landspout-type tornado that was spotted by the Janesville airport observer, trained spotters and the public. It began over the southwest part of Clear Lake and moved east-southeast and ended just east of STH 59. A screen porch was ripped off a mobile home trailer and some trees just south and southeast of Clear Lake were uprooted or damaged. The estimated max wind speeds of were 70-75 mph. Starting and ending location of 42.79879/-88.98358 and 42.79540/-88.96750. The compass bearing was 117 degrees. The average path width was about 15 yds. DI#3, DOD2.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
9 minutes of warning. NWS MKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:00 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Heat Advisory | MKX |
| 01:00 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | MKX |
| 17:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Heat Advisory | MKX |
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 00:48 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.
Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z
1.2 hours before the tornado, 181 km from the path. June 24, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1824 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -17 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3755 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1743 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 4 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -12 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 64 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.4 K/km
Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z
10.8 hours after it, 181 km from the path. June 24, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -382 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 42 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1630 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 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
- 3.7 K/km
The radar
The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:55 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 Se Edgerton | Rock, WI | AIRPLANE PILOT SPOTTED FUNNEL CLOUD ALMOST TOUCHING THE GROUND NEAR EDGERTON. |
| 01:10 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 5 Se Edgerton | Rock, WI | A STORM SURVEY DETERMINED AN EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR CLEAR LAKE...OR 5 SE OF EDGERTON. A SCREEN WAS FLIPPED OVER A TRAILER. MINIMAL TREE AND POWER LINE DAMAGE WAS ALSO OBSERVED MAINLY TO THE SOUTHEAST OF THE LAKE. |
| 01:10 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Se Edgerton | Rock, WI | TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 23, 2009
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 23 | 4:45 PM EDT | EF0 | Citrus, FL | 0.5 | 50 | $250,000 | ||
| June 23 | 5:15 PM EDT | EF0 | Franklin, FL | 0.6 | 25 | $5,000 | ||
| June 23 | 4:58 PM MDT | EF0 | Elbert, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 23 | 7:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Logan, NE | 3.0 | 20 | |||
| June 23 | 8:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Custer, NE | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| June 23 | 8:07 PM MDT | EF0 | Logan, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 23 | 12:25 AM EDT | EF1 | Sarasota, FL | 0.6 | 100 | $350,000 |
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.