Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 2019

EF0 tornado, Lake George to Enterprise, Wisconsin, July 19, 2019

From Lake George to Enterprise, this EF0 tornado ran 5.4 miles across Oneida County on July 19, 2019, touching down at 7:49 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $400,000 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.

  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
July 19, 2019
Touchdown
7:49 PM CDT (00:49 UTC)
Lifted
7:58 PM CDT (00:58 UTC)
On the ground
9 minutes
Path length
5.4 miles (8.7 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$400,000
County
Oneida County
Touchdown point
45.538, -89.390
Lift-off point
45.528, -89.278
Record number
1907191849-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across much of central, north central, and eastern Wisconsin during the evening hours of July 19, 2019. Widespread tree and power line damage was reported from central Wisconsin into the Fox Valley and lake shore. WPS reported over 50,000 outages at the height of the storm.||The worst damage was associated with a macroburst, a large downburst of straight-line winds that affected a large swath from Pelican Lake in Oneida County, southeast through Langlade and Oconto counties. Hundreds of thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted, resulting in damage to dozens of homes and cottages. The damage path was about 60 miles long and up to 10 miles wide at times. Winds were likely near 100 mph in the hardest hit areas near Lily in northeast Langlade County and near the Langlade-Oconto County line southwest of Boot Lake.

A tornado produced a path of scattered tree damage (DI 28, DOD 2,3) west of Pelican Lake. Peak winds were estimated around 80 mph.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:55 UTC and running to 02:57 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:55 UTC02:57 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGRB
23:18 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRB
00:25 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRB
00:50 UTC02:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningGRB
01:12 UTC01:44 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 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

0.8 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. July 20, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2019-07-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2503 joules per kilogram, CIN -76, lifted condensation level 1199 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 2019-07-20The 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 38 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
2503 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-76 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4190 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1199 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
38 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
218 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.2 hours after it, 152 km from the path. July 20, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2019-07-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2357 joules per kilogram, CIN -173, lifted condensation level 706 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 12:00Z on 2019-07-20The 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 240 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
2357 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-173 J/kg
Surface CAPE
284 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
706 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
240 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
254 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Green Bay radar (KGRB), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:51 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
00:00 UTCTORNADOTripoliLincoln, WITORNADO ON THE GROUND ALONG HIGHWAY 8 FROM THE COUNTY LINE AROUND THE TOWN OF TRIPOLI TO JUST WEST OF THE TOWN OF BRADLEY. PRELIMARY RATING-EF0.
00:43 UTCHAIL 1RhinelanderOneida, WI
00:44 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 S RhinelanderOneida, WITREES DOWN. DELAYED REPORT. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
00:44 UTCHAIL 1RhinelanderOneida, WI1 INCH HAIL AND LOCALIZED FLOODING IN CITY OF RHINELANDER REPORTED BY FIRE DEPARTMENT.
00:45 UTCTORNADO4 E JeffrisOneida, WITORNADO ON THE GROUND JUST WEST OF PELICAN LAKE. PRELIMINARY RATING-EF1.
00:56 UTCTSTM WND DMGGleasonLincoln, WITREE BRANCHES DOWN.
01:25 UTCHAIL 1.25Pelican LakeOneida, WIFOUR TREES DOWN THAT WERE 6 TO 8 INCHES IN DIAMETER.
01:31 UTCTSTM WND DMGAntigoLanglade, WITREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN ANTIGO AND ACROSS THE ENTIRE COUNTY.

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of July 19, 2019

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 1912:44 AM MDTEF1Carter, MT0.5100
July 195:28 PM CDTEF1Polk, WI13.9600
July 195:28 PM CDTEF0Polk, WI0.975
July 196:47 PM CDTEF0Lincoln, WI6.550
July 197:17 PM CDTEF0Clark, WI0.230$30,000
July 197:24 PM CDTEF1Clark, WI0.340$30,000
July 198:20 PM CDTEF1Marathon, WI9.0100$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.