Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2018

EF0 tornado, Georgetown, Wisconsin, June 26, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Grant County on June 26, 2018, touching down at 10:42 AM CDT and reaching 10 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
June 26, 2018
Touchdown
10:42 AM CDT (15:42 UTC)
Lifted
10:43 AM CDT (15:43 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Grant County
Touchdown point
42.620, -90.510
Lift-off point
42.621, -90.509
Record number
1806260942-01

The damage survey

3 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 EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

  • Corn blown down. Off in distance. Ends beyond hill.

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

Numerous showers and thunderstorms moved across southwest Wisconsin during the morning of June 26th. Funnel clouds were sighted with this activity with one briefly touching the ground between Dickeyville and Cuba City (Grant County). The tornado was only on the ground for about a minute and no damage was reported.

A brief tornado touched down north of County Road H and east of Quarry Road between Dickeyville and Cuba City. The Grant County Emergency Manager reported no damage with the tornado.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:00 UTC20:57 UTCFlood WarningARX

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:05 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

3.7 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. June 26, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2018-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1133 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 503 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2018-06-26The 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 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
1133 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
604 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
503 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
153 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
3.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

8.3 hours after it, 111 km from the path. June 27, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2018-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 307 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 762 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 2018-06-27The 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 51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
307 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
497 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
762 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:41 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
15:42 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Wsw GeorgetownGrant, WILAW ENFORCEMENT RELAYED PUBLIC REPORT OF FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR COUNTY ROAD H & QUARRY ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
15:42 UTCTORNADO1 S GeorgetownGrant, WIVIDEO ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF TORNADO NEAR INTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROAD D AND COUNTY ROAD H. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
15:42 UTCTORNADO2 Wsw GeorgetownGrant, WITHIS IS A CORRECTION TO THE TORNADO REPORTED 1 S GEORGETOWN, SAME TIME. VIDEO ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF TORNADO NORTH OF COUNTY ROAD H EAST OF QUARRY ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
16:18 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDPlattevilleGrant, WIVIDEO ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF FUNNEL CLOUD IN PLATTEVILLE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
16:30 UTCTORNADO5 S ReweyLafayette, WIRATED EF0 WITH ESTIMATED 70 MPH WIND. CROP DAMAGE IN A CORN FIELD AND LARGE BRANCHES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR...WILL BE REFINED IF NEEDED. PATH AND WIDTH STILL TO BE DETERMINED.
16:35 UTCTORNADO3 Ssw ReweyLafayette, WIPOSSIBLE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN FAR NORTHWEST LAFAYETTE COUNTY, SOUTHWEST OF REWEY. PLATTEVILLE FIRE DEPT. REPORTED SEVERAL BRIEF TOUCHDOWNS NEAR THE COUNTY LINE. LAFAYETTE COUNTY EM HEADED TO THE AREA TO CHECK IT OUT.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 26, 2018

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 269:41 AM CDTEF0White, IL0.7100$20,000
June 2611:30 AM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.540$1,000
June 261:44 PM EDTEF1Oldham, KY3.5150$550,000
June 261:09 PM CDTEF0Jackson, MO3.4100$150,000
June 262:24 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI1.847$15,000
June 263:26 PM CDTEF0Scotland, MO0.210
June 263:30 PM CDTEF1St. Clair, MO2.5200
June 265:28 PM CDTEF0Kane, IL0.020
June 266:39 PM CDTEF0Butler, KS1.9100
June 266:42 PM CDTEF0Butler, KS0.550
June 266:53 PM CDTEF0Will, IL0.125
June 266:54 PM CDTEF1Will, IL1.1100$30,000
June 267:18 PM CDTEF3Greenwood, KS9.25008$14 million
June 268:23 PM CDTEF0Henry, IL0.010
June 268:27 PM CDTEF1Champaign, IL3.975$37,000
June 268:53 PM CDTEF0Morton, ND0.150
June 269:02 PM CDTEF0Butler, KS0.550

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.