EF0 tornado, Withee, Wisconsin, July 19, 2019

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

July 19, 2019

Touchdown

7:17 PM CDT (00:17 UTC)

Lifted

7:19 PM CDT (00:19 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Clark County

Touchdown point

44.960, -90.680

Lift-off point

44.962, -90.676

Record number

1907191817-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

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

During the evening of July 19th, a complex of severe thunderstorms moved across north-central Wisconsin. These storms produced two short-lived tornadoes along with damaging winds. The first tornado touched down west of Withee (Clark County) and damaged a farmstead and trees. The second tornado occurred north of Withee where a residence and trees were damaged. Significant wind damage occurred from Owen (Clark County) east into Abbotsford (Clark County) where barns, silos, trees and power lines were blown down. A federal disaster declaration was made for Clark County.

A brief tornado occurred west of Withee. The tornado touched down near a farm where the roof was partially torn off a barn, the top of a silo was ripped off, pole barns were damaged along with between 15 and 20 trees. The tornado then crossed County Highway O before dissipating.

A brief tornado occurred north of Withee. The tornado touched down in a field, crossed Center Road before dissipating in a wooded area. Trees were blown onto a mobile home and numerous power poles along Center Road were snapped or bent.

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

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:58 UTC and running to 02:59 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:46 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 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.

The La Crosse radar (KARX), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:17 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.