EF0 tornado, North Bend, Wisconsin, July 20, 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 20, 2019

Touchdown

9:14 AM CDT (14:14 UTC)

Lifted

9:18 AM CDT (14:18 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Crop damage

$10,000

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

44.107, -91.083

Lift-off point

44.098, -91.052

Record number

1907200814-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Tornado appeared to lift just after hitting this final patch of woods. No other visible damage seen downstream.
• Corn blown over with notably convergent path of trees along the edge of the woods.
• Tornado appeared to touch down on the edge of a corn field near a small patch of woods. No upstream visible damage looking to the west of this point.
• Quite a few hardwoods snapped, with a few uprooted as well (soils were very wet). Convergent path up and over the ridge top.

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

Two rounds of thunderstorms moved across western Wisconsin on July 20th. The first round moved across during the morning and produced two tornadoes. The first tornado touched down in far southeast Trempealeau County and damaged corn and trees. The second tornado occurred northeast of North Bend (Jackson County) with the damage again limited to corn and trees. This round of storms also blew down trees from near Galesville (Trempealeau County) and Holmen (La Crosse County) northeast to Spencer (Clark County). The second round of storms moved across during the afternoon and blew down trees near Rockland (La Crosse County) and Rockbridge (Richland County). Around 7,000 customers lost power in La Crosse County after the storms moved through. The Governor of Wisconsin declared a statewide State of Emergency. A federal disaster declaration was made for La Crosse, Monroe and Vernon Counties.

A tornado moved across the far southwest corner of Jackson County northeast of North Bend. The tornado touched down in a small wooden area, moved across State Highway 54 before dissipating in another wooded area. Damage was limited to trees and some corn.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS ARX issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:02 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 14:06 UTC and running to 18:20 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:51 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.

Black River Falls (BCK), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The La Crosse radar (KARX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:11 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

8 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.