EF1 tornado, Wausaukee, Wisconsin, August 19, 2011

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

August 19, 2011

Touchdown

4:45 PM CDT (21:45 UTC)

Lifted

5:00 PM CDT (22:00 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

0

Property damage

$125,000

Counties

Marinette and Menominee counties

Touchdown point

45.403, -87.987

Lift-off point

45.340, -87.852

Record number

1108191545-03

A deadly tornado occurred in Marinette County in Wausaukee and isolated severe thunderstorms produced large hail and gusty winds across north-central Wisconsin. The storms knocked out electricity to 2,000 customers and caused at least $120,000 in damage.

A deep low pressure system moving through northwest Ontario pushed a warm front across western Upper Michigan in the morning hours...followed by a cold frontal passage in the afternoon. The frontal boundaries produced several severe thunderstorms and two weak tornadoes over western Upper Michigan on the 19th.

A tornado quickly developed northwest of the city of Wausaukee during the late afternoon and moved southeast for nearly eight miles before dissipating. The twister touched down near Long Lake, snapping or uprooting hundreds of trees (DI 28, DOD 3, 4) as it moved toward Wausaukee. A mobile home near Long Lake was heavily damaged by fallen trees, but the occupants escaped without injury. As the tornado moved into Wausaukee, it leveled another mobile home (DI 3, DOD 7), killing a 46 year old male. Two additional buildings on the property sustained damage, including a house that lost part of its roof (DI 2, DOD 4). Two semi-trailers on the property were blown over. The tornado continued southeast, damaging a baseball field and hundreds of additional trees on the east side of Wausaukee. The tornado reached the Menominee River and briefly crossed into Upper Michigan before moving back into Wisconsin and dissipating.||The tornado was rated EF1, with estimated maximum winds of 100 to 105 mph. The average path width was 100 yards.

About a dozen trees were uprooted and numerous branches broken in the Escanaba River State Forest along the Menominee River.

The thunderstorm that produced the tornado near Wausaukee re-entered Wisconsin from Menominee County, MI along the Menominee River. The tornado uprooted several trees and snapped numerous branches (DI 28, DOD 2, 3) as it continued to weaken along Highway 180. One tree fell onto the roof of a home near Deer Lane Road.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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.

Menominee (MNM), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Green Bay radar (KGRB), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:46 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 2011 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.