Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2017
EF0 tornado, Morrison, Wisconsin, June 14, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 1.2 miles across Brown County on June 14, 2017, touching down at 3:53 PM CDT and reaching 50 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.
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 14, 2017
- Touchdown
- 3:53 PM CDT (20:53 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:55 PM CDT (20:55 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.2 miles (1.9 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Brown County
- Touchdown point
- 44.290, -88.000
- Lift-off point
- 44.300, -87.980
- Record number
- 1706141453-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of thunderstorms, known as a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS), formed ahead of a cold front and produced widespread winds of 50 to 70 mph and tornadoes as it passed through central and east-central Wisconsin. Ten tornadoes formed during the afternoon. One was associated with an isolated storm ahead of the main line. Five of the tornadoes were rated EF0 and the other five were EF1. ||This was the biggest outbreak of tornadoes in the National Weather Service Green Bay service area of northeast and north-central Wisconsin, tying the April 10, 2011, event.
A weak tornado caused minor tree damage (DI 27, DOD 1 and 2).
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
8 minutes of warning. NWS GRB issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:45 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:19 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:40 UTC and running to 22:21 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:40 UTC | 22:21 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | GRB |
| 20:25 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GRB |
| 20:34 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | GRB |
| 20:45 UTC | 21:19 UTC | Tornado Warning | GRB |
| 21:00 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GRB |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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.
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z
8.9 hours before the tornado, 22 km from the path. June 14, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 303 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -184 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 814 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 18 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 89 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z
3.1 hours after it, 22 km from the path. June 15, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 6 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -192 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 106 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 987 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -19 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 127 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The radar
The Green Bay radar (KGRB), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:52 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:13 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sw Oshkosh | Winnebago, WI | A FEW TREES DOWN. |
| 20:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Butte Des Morts | Winnebago, WI | SMALL TREE LIMBS DOWN. 50 MPH GUSTS |
| 20:17 UTC | TORNADO | 5 N Appleton | Outagamie, WI | BRIEF, WEAK TORNADO NEAR MACKVILLE. TREE LIMBS AND TWIGS DOWN. |
| 20:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Menasha | Winnebago, WI | MANY TREES DOWN. |
| 20:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Appleton | Outagamie, WI | ESTIMATED 55 TO 60 MPH WINDS. LARGE TREES DOWN ON SOUTH AND EAST SIDE OF CITY. |
| 20:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Shiocton | Outagamie, WI | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 20:30 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 3 N Shiocton | Outagamie, WI | |
| 20:30 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Se Appleton | Outagamie, WI | EF1 TORNADO BEGAN NEAR FOX CROSSING IN NE WINNEBAGO COUNTY AND MOVED INTO OUTAGAMIE COUNTY ACROSS SOUTHEAST APPLETON AND INTO THE KIMBERLY AREA. ON THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 6 MILES. |
| 20:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Nne Mount Calvary | Fond Du Lac, WI | ROOF TORN OFF MILKING PARLOR. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 20:32 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 2 S Appleton | Calumet, WI | |
| 20:32 UTC | TSTM WND GST 66 | Sherwood | Calumet, WI | TIME OF EVENT IS AN ESTIMATE. |
| 20:33 UTC | TORNADO | Shiocton | Outagamie, WI | LARGE TREES DOWN ON WIRES |
| 20:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | Appleton | Outagamie, WI | LARGE TREES DOWN AROUND APPLETON. TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 20:43 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Se Navarino Wildlife | Shawano, WI | |
| 20:44 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.75 | Oshkosh | Winnebago, WI | |
| 20:47 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Navarino | Shawano, WI | ROTATING WALL CLOUD |
| 20:51 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sw Pulaski | Shawano, WI | THIS CORRESPONDS TO TORNADO 7 ON THE NWS DAMAGE SURVEY PNS SUMMARY. |
| 20:52 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Wsw Sobieski | Oconto, WI | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. |
| 20:52 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Frazer Corners | Shawano, WI | |
| 20:53 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sw Angelica | Shawano, WI | THIS CORRESPONDS TO TORNADO 8 ON THE NWS DAMAGE SURVEY PNS SUMMARY. |
| 20:54 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nne Morrison | Brown, WI | WEAK TORNADO NEAR MORRISON. A FEW TREE BRANCHES DOWN ALONG SHORT PATH. |
| 20:58 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ene Plymouth | Sheboygan, WI | TRACTOR TRAILER OVERTURNED BY STRONG WINDS. |
| 21:04 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ene Green Bay | Brown, WI | 4 TO 5 INCH TREE LIMBS BROKEN OFF AND TOSSED 100 TO 150 FEET. REPORT FROM UW-GREEN BAY. |
| 21:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Little Suamico | Oconto, WI | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. |
| 21:09 UTC | TSTM WND GST 64 | Pulaski | Brown, WI | |
| 21:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Manitowoc | Manitowoc, WI | SEVERAL TREES DOWN |
| 21:25 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Manitowoc | Manitowoc, WI | ALSO STREET FLOODING |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 14, 2017
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 14 | 1:30 PM EDT | EF0 | Osceola, FL | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 14 | 1:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Shawano, WI | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 14 | 2:49 PM CDT | EF1 | Waushara, WI | 2.8 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| June 14 | 3:28 PM CDT | EF1 | Outagamie, WI | 8.0 | 125 | $255,000 | ||
| June 14 | 3:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Outagamie, WI | 2.8 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| June 14 | 3:31 PM CDT | EF0 | Outagamie, WI | 4.0 | 50 | |||
| June 14 | 3:40 PM CDT | EF1 | Outagamie, WI | 4.0 | 100 | |||
| June 14 | 3:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Shawano, WI | 5.1 | 75 | |||
| June 14 | 3:51 PM CDT | EF1 | Shawano, WI | 5.8 | 150 | $75,000 | ||
| June 14 | 3:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Shawano, WI | 3.0 | 50 | $25,000 |
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.