EF1 tornado, North Branch to Sherwood, Wisconsin, July 14, 2010

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 14, 2010

Touchdown

4:16 PM CDT (21:16 UTC)

Lifted

5:13 PM CDT (22:13 UTC)

On the ground

57 minutes

Path length

30.8 miles (49.5 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

Counties

Jackson and Clark counties

Touchdown point

44.474, -90.974

Lift-off point

44.439, -90.354

Record number

1007141516-01

A cold front tracked west to east across western and central Wisconsin during the afternoon and evening hours of July 14th. Severe thunderstorms developed along the cold front and produced severe wind gusts, funnel clouds, large hail and one tornado. The severe winds knocked trees down onto power lines and caused power outages across portions of central and western Wisconsin. Trained spotters estimated hail up to two inches in diameter near Osseo in Trempealeau County. The severe thunderstorms also produced an EF1 tornado in northern Jackson and southern Clark Counties. These storms also produce very heavy rain which caused flash flooding across southern Jackson, northern Monroe and Richland Counties. Law enforcement reported several roads closed due to water over roads and washouts. Cooperative observers and amateur radio operators reported rainfall amounts ranging from three to seven inches across southern Jackson and northern Monroe Counties.

A National Weather Service survey team surveyed intermittent EF0 tree damage along Town House Road through the village of Merrillan to the Clark and Jackson County line.

A National Weather Service survey team surveyed intermittent EF1 tree damage beginning at the Jackson and Clark County line, then east along Ballard Road and County Road Z in extreme southern Clark County. The tornado was the strongest in the vicinity of Lake Arbutus where extensive tree damage was found on the north side of the lake near Bush Road. The tornado track appeared to be just north of this area with most of the damage caused by winds around the south side of the storm (rear flank downdrafts).

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:44 UTC and running to 00:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Marshfield (MFI), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The La Crosse radar (KARX), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:13 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 2010 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.