Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2017
EF0 tornado, Leyden to Downtown Janesville, Wisconsin, June 28, 2017
From Leyden to Downtown Janesville, this EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Rock County on June 28, 2017, touching down at 7:38 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $60,000 of property damage.
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 28, 2017
- Touchdown
- 7:38 PM CDT (00:38 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:40 PM CDT (00:40 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $60,000
- County
- Rock County
- Touchdown point
- 42.687, -89.099
- Lift-off point
- 42.687, -89.084
- Record number
- 1706281838-01
The damage survey
22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MKX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.
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
A powerful line of thunderstorms moved across southern Wisconsin during the evening of June 28, 2017. These storms brought damaging winds and 3 tornadoes to the area.
This short lived tornado topped, snapped, or uprooted many trees and damaged the roof on two farm buildings.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS MKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:38 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:15 UTC and running to 02:09 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:15 UTC | 02:09 UTC | Tornado Watch | MKX |
| 23:57 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MKX |
| 00:22 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MKX |
| 00:38 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | MKX |
| 04:38 UTC | 05:01 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MKX |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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), 00:00Z
0.6 hours before the tornado, 166 km from the path. June 29, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1521 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2161 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1099 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 50 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 259 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 334 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 15.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.8 K/km
Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z
11.4 hours after it, 166 km from the path. June 29, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 27 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -369 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 968 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 163 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 175 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The radar
The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:38 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 E Monroe | Green, WI | A FARM BUILDING WAS DESTROYED AND 1 TREE WAS DOWNED. |
| 23:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 E Monroe | Green, WI | TREES AND POWERLINES DOWNED. |
| 23:55 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ssw Monticello | Green, WI | REPORTS OF ROOF DAMAGE AND POWER POLES SNAPPED BETWEEN MONROE AND MONTICELLO...DAMAGE PATH CROSSES WI HWY 69. |
| 23:55 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ssw Monticello | Green, WI | DAMAGE SURVEY DETERMINED A SHORT LIVED TORNADO IMPACTED FAITH ENGINEERING LAST EVENING. 2 BUILDINGS SUSTAINED ROOF DAMAGE AND HAD WINDOWS BROKEN. A TRAILER WAS FLIPPED. MULTIPLE TREES WERE EITHER SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. AND |
| 23:55 UTC | TORNADO | 5 S Monticello | Green, WI | TORNADO BEGAN NEAR INTERSECTION OF HWY 69 AND COLD SPRINGS RD AND ENDED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF SULZER AND FELD RDS. ALONG THE PATH A BARN AND POLE SHED WERE DESTROYED, 4 HOUSES SUSTAINED DAMAGE, 4 POWER POLES SNAPPED, |
| 00:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ssw Mcfarland | Dane, WI | TREES SNAPPED AND UPROOTED. |
| 00:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Orfordville | Rock, WI | WIDESPREAD TREE DAMAGE ACROSS SOUTHWESTERN ROCK COUNTY. |
| 00:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ese Mcfarland | Dane, WI | 3 FOOT DIAMETER TREE SNAPPED. |
| 00:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Waterloo | Jefferson, WI | 2.5 FOOT TREE TRUNK SNAPPED. |
| 00:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Beloit | Rock, WI | 12 INCH TREE BRANCH SNAPPED OFF OF CHERRY TREE. PICTURE SHARED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fort Atkinson | Jefferson, WI | SEVERAL LARGE BRANCHES DOWN. |
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 28, 2017
25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 28 | 3:46 PM CDT | EF2 | Fremont, IA | 3.7 | 135 | |||
| June 28 | 3:57 PM CDT | EF0 | Adair, IA | 14.9 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| June 28 | 4:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Page, IA | 2.1 | 75 | |||
| June 28 | 4:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Adams, IA | 3.8 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| June 28 | 4:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Pierce, WI | 11.3 | 700 | |||
| June 28 | 4:43 PM CDT | EF0 | Adams, IA | 1.9 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| June 28 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Adair, IA | 7.6 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| June 28 | 4:49 PM CDT | EF1 | Burnett, WI | 2.2 | 180 | |||
| June 28 | 5:05 PM CDT | EF2 | Taylor, IA | 7.0 | 1,000 | $75,000 | ||
| June 28 | 5:54 PM CDT | EF1 | Warren, IA | 17.8 | 500 | $85,000 | ||
| June 28 | 6:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Warren, IA | 0.5 | 25 | |||
| June 28 | 6:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Olmsted, MN | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| June 28 | 6:38 PM CDT | EF2 | Linn, IA | 11.7 | 200 | 1 | ||
| June 28 | 6:42 PM CDT | EF0 | Olmsted, MN | 0.4 | 25 | $5,000 | ||
| June 28 | 6:48 PM CDT | EF1 | Gentry, MO | 16.4 | 75 | |||
| June 28 | 6:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Green, WI | 2.2 | 300 | $325,000 | ||
| June 28 | 6:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Green, WI | 0.6 | 150 | $145,000 | ||
| June 28 | 7:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Olmsted, MN | 0.5 | 25 | $3,000 | ||
| June 28 | 7:14 PM CDT | EF2 | Jones, IA | 2.5 | 30 | |||
| June 28 | 7:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Benton, IA | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 28 | 7:56 PM CDT | EF1 | Jones, IA | 2.0 | 15 | |||
| June 28 | 8:14 PM CDT | EF1 | Boone, IL | 5.9 | 200 | |||
| June 28 | 8:23 PM CDT | EF1 | Winnebago, IL | 1.6 | 100 | |||
| June 28 | 8:31 PM CDT | EF0 | Nodaway, MO | 1.3 | 25 | |||
| June 28 | 8:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Gentry, MO | 1.4 | 25 |
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.