EF1 tornado, Platteville, Wisconsin, June 16, 2014

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

June 16, 2014

Touchdown

10:49 PM CDT (03:49 UTC)

Lifted

10:50 PM CDT (03:50 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$540,000

Crop damage

$1,000

County

Grant County

Touchdown point

42.752, -90.473

Lift-off point

42.752, -90.464

Record number

1406162149-01

26 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX and NWS MKX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Shell station heavily damaged
• Nearby trees sustained very little damage.
• Damage to stands and light poles at stadium.
• Rocks from roof tops broke windows and heavily damage cars in parking lot.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A line of severe thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon of June 16th across Minnesota and Iowa. As the storms rolled across western Wisconsin they produced sporadic wind damage and at least 2 tornadoes in Platteville (Grant County) where 5 injuries occurred. The tornadoes caused extensive damage to the University of Wisconsin - Platteville campus and to numerous homes and business near the campus. Damage estimates to the campus alone were near $10 million. The Governor of Wisconsin declared a state of emergency for three southern Wisconsin counties, including Grant. The U.S. Small Business Administration approved a request for a disaster declaration in Grant County. The disaster declaration allows homeowners and businesses to obtain loans to repair or replace damaged or destroyed property.

A tornado formed along a squall line west of Platteville, just south of County Road B, and traveled through Memorial Park on to the Univ. of Wisconsin - Platteville campus. Five people were injured, one of them seriously. There was extensive damage done to five buildings and the stadium on campus. Roofs of two new residential halls were partially destroyed and a third residential hall was also damaged along with one academic building. Two large lighting structures at the football stadium were knocked over, with one crashing across the bleachers causing the concrete foundation underneath the bleachers to be substantially moved. Damage continued into nearby homes and businesses as the tornado tracked across Business Highway 151. The top level of a split level home was ripped off one house, another house lost part of a roof and a porch while several other homes had windows blown out and trees knocked down. A gas station/convenience store was leveled by the tornado where it also ripped a pump out of the ground and blew over a semi. Numerous other business and vehicles suffered blown out windows. After hitting a cemetery on the south side of town, the tornado dissipated just before reaching U.S. Highway 151 southeast of town. A total of 12 homes were destroyed with another 20 damaged.||At UW-Platteville, the tornado caused $7.3 million in damage to Bridgeway Commons, $4.8 million in damage to Rountree Commons and $1.8 million to Southwest Hall. All three buildings are dorms.||The tornado caused $1.8 million in damage to Engineering Hall, a classroom building, and $1.7 million in damage to the stadium.

A second tornado (EF1) hit the northeast corner of Platteville, near the Golf and Country Club. The track was about 1/2 mile long with a 50 yard width. Damage included some trees knocked down and a roof off an apartment building.

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 tornado watch, issued at 22:46 UTC and running to 04:27 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:14 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.

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:47 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 2014 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

35 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.