Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2015

EF0 tornado, Stearns, Wisconsin, May 26, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Green County on May 26, 2015, touching down at 12:23 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 26, 2015
Touchdown
12:23 PM CDT (17:23 UTC)
Lifted
12:24 PM CDT (17:24 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Green County
Touchdown point
42.700, -89.646
Lift-off point
42.701, -89.646
Record number
1505261123-01

The damage survey

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MKX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 76 mph.

  • Unanchored playset tumbled approx 50 feet

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Low pressure intensified as it moved from Iowa to central Wisconsin. A surge of warm and moist air generated a large band of showers and isolated thunderstorms that moved north through southern and central Wisconsin. A few occurrences of thunderstorm wind damage from downburst winds were reported. A very brief and weak tornado was also observed.

Two people saw a very brief tornado in a field. No damage was observed.

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

The warnings

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

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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), 12:00Z

5.4 hours before the tornado, 139 km from the path. May 26, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2015-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 362 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 842 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2015-05-26The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
362 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
657 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
842 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

6.6 hours after it, 139 km from the path. May 27, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2015-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 1261 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2015-05-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
284 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1261 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Monroe (EFT), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:35 UTC6864.4120° 10 kt161008.5RA
15:55 UTC66.264.4110° 10 kt151008.1RA
16:15 UTC66.264.4100° 10 kt141007.5RA
16:30 UTC66.264.4110° 9 kt151007.5RA
16:55 UTC66.264.4120° 13 kt191006.8+RA
17:15 UTC6866.2130° 21 kt271006.1
17:35 UTC66.262.6210° 12 kt211007.5-RA
17:55 UTC6864.4200° 15 kt191007.1
18:15 UTC69.864.4200° 16 kt221007.1
18:35 UTC69.862.6190° 18 kt251006.8
18:55 UTC69.862.6200° 18 kt261006.8
19:15 UTC71.662.6210° 20 kt251006.4

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

The radar

The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:23 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
17:23 UTCTORNADO4 Sw MonticelloGreen, WIPOTENTIAL TORNADO REPORTED BY A TRAINED SPOTTER AND PUBLIC SPOTTER SOUTHWEST OF MONTICELLO. TORNADO REPORTED TO HAVE OCCURRED IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIELD AND QUICKLY DISSIPATED.
17:29 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Sw New GlarusGreen, WIWET MICROBURST WIND DAMAGE ALONG COUNTY ROAD N FROM COUNTY ROAD H DOWN TO MEADOW VALLEY ROAD. A NUMBER OF TREES EITHER UPROOTED OR SNAPPED OFF. DAMAGE TO A RESIDENCE WHICH INCLUDED A PLAYSET AND LARGE STATUE. ALL DAMAGE
17:46 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.341 S Mount HorebDane, WI
17:53 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.22Black EarthDane, WISTORM TOTAL SO FAR.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 2015

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 261:22 AM CDTEF1Jefferson Parish, LA0.4100
May 269:59 AM CDTEF1Henry, IL4.050$10,000
May 269:59 AM CDTEF1Jackson, IA0.125
May 2610:46 AM CDTEF1Bureau, IL2.450$15,000
May 261:08 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL0.450$10,000
May 263:41 PM EDTEF1Meriwether, GA9.8350$100,000
May 265:16 PM EDTEF1Greene, OH0.6702$750,000
May 265:40 PM CDTEF0Palo Pinto, TX2.275
May 266:06 PM CDTEF0Palo Pinto, TX0.560
May 266:29 PM CDTEF0Palo Pinto, TX0.680
May 266:32 PM CDTEF0Custer, OK0.130
May 266:32 PM CDTEF0Caddo, OK0.130

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.