Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2017

EF0 tornado, Enterprise, Wisconsin, May 16, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Oneida County on May 16, 2017, touching down at 8:12 PM CDT and reaching 175 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 16, 2017
Touchdown
8:12 PM CDT (01:12 UTC)
Lifted
8:13 PM CDT (01:13 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
175 yards (160 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Oneida County
Touchdown point
45.471, -89.363
Lift-off point
45.471, -89.356
Record number
1705161912-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed near a warm front that was draped across central and northeast Wisconsin. Some of the storms produced large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain in parts of central and north central Wisconsin. A brief tornado uprooted several hundred pine trees south of Rhinelander. Winds from the storms downed trees in Langlade County and hail that was at least 2 inches in diameter fell at Pelican Lake (Oneida Co.). Rainfall totals of 1 to 2 inches were common with the storms.

A brief tornado uprooted several hundred pine trees (DI 28, DOD 3) just north of Highway Q near the Oneida County/Langlade County line, about 9.5 miles west-southwest of Pelican Lake. The EF0 tornado was on the ground for less than a minute and had an average width of 100 yards.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:02 UTC and running to 02:22 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:02 UTC02:22 UTCTornado WatchGRB
00:15 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRB
01:31 UTC01:52 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRB

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 00:42 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), 00:00Z

1.2 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. May 17, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2017-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 234 joules per kilogram, CIN -146, lifted condensation level 1926 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2017-05-17The 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 152 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
234 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-146 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1768 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1926 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
152 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
240 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 148 km from the path. May 17, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2017-05-17Temperature 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 -68908, lifted condensation level 1435 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2017-05-17The 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 8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-68908 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1435 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Green Bay radar (KGRB), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:10 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
00:46 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDSpiritPrice, WISPOTTER REPORTED FUNNEL CLOUD MOVING TOWARD SPIRIT ALONG 102.
01:12 UTCTORNADO10 W Pelican LakeOneida, WIA BRIEF TORNADO UPROOTED ABOUT 200 PINE TREES JUST NORTH OF HWY Q NEAR THE ONEIDA/LANGLADE COUNTY LINE. PATH LENGTH WAS LESS THAN A HALF MILE.
01:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 501 W TomahawkLincoln, WIESTIMATED 50 MPH WIND GUSTS.
01:15 UTCHAIL 0.881 W TomahawkLincoln, WINICKEL SIZED HAIL ON HIGHWAY 86 JUST WEST OF TOMAHAWK.
01:15 UTCHAIL 0.883 E RhinelanderOneida, WI
01:19 UTCTSTM WND DMGIrmaLincoln, WITREE DOWN ON HIGHWAY 51 SOUTHBOUND. SOUTH OF TOMAHAWK NEAR IRMA. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
01:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGIrmaLincoln, WIA COUPLE TREES DOWN NEAR HWY 51.
01:30 UTCHAIL 2Pelican LakeOneida, WIAT LEAST 2 INCH DIAMETER HAIL.
02:47 UTCHAIL 15 N WausauMarathon, WI
03:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.321 S RhinelanderOneida, WICO-OP OBSERVER STATION RHRW3, RHINELANDER WJFW TV-12.

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 May 16, 2017

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 162:45 PM CDTEF0Beaver, OK0.125
May 163:04 PM CDTEF0Hansford, TX0.125
May 164:39 PM CDTEF0Donley, TX1.450
May 164:42 PM CDTEF3Barron, WI82.51,320125$11 million
May 164:43 PM CDTEF0Fillmore, NE1.835$3,000
May 164:53 PM CDTEF0Wheeler, TX0.125
May 165:16 PM CDTEF1Wheeler, TX0.125
May 165:25 PM CDTEF2Wheeler, TX9.21,250
May 165:45 PM CDTEF0Collingsworth, TX0.325
May 165:49 PM CDTEF1Clark, KS4.050
May 165:50 PM CDTEF0Collingsworth, TX2.325
May 166:08 PM CDTUnratedBeckham, OK1.020
May 166:18 PM CDTEF2Roger Mills, OK10.3150$40,000
May 166:23 PM CDTUnratedBeckham, OK1.150
May 165:36 PM MDTEF0Perkins, NE0.120
May 166:45 PM CDTEF1Roger Mills, OK0.850$1,000
May 166:46 PM CDTEF2Beckham, OK18.01,000110$25 million
May 167:59 PM CDTEF3Pawnee, KS26.63002$658,000
May 168:48 PM CDTEF0Barton, KS0.375

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.