EF1 tornado, Boscobel to Barneveld, Wisconsin, June 17, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

June 17, 2026

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

6:14 PM CDT (23:14 UTC)

On the ground

29 minutes

Path length

21.7 miles (34.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Grant and Iowa counties

Touchdown point

43.114, -90.656

Lift-off point

43.053, -90.253

Highest wind the damage implies

105 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ARX and NWS MKX

The office's name for it

Grant - Iowa County, WI

Survey last edited

August 24, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

This tornado developed just to the southeast of Boscobel and exhibited a weak and diffuse path for much of its existence, with an RFD interacting with and disrupting the tornado circulation from eastern Grant County into Iowa County. The majority of the damage caused by this tornado in Grant County was EF0 with pockets of EF1 damage, consisting of significant tree damage and some heavily damaged farm outbuildings. The tornado intensified slightly into Iowa County as the RFD became more of a driver in the damage field.

Written by NWS ARX and NWS MKX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

103 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 EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Metal barn destroyed with sheet metal lofted and placed in trees by the church across the road.
• Numerous trees damaged in the woods to the west of the barn.
• Numerous limbs snapped out of a large oak tree at cemetery. Sheet metal lofted to location from barn to the west.
• Corner of church roof peeled back along with some steeple soffit.

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

During the late afternoon and early evening hours on June 17th, two long-tracked tornadoes moved across portions of Crawford and Grant Counties. The first of these tornadoes was an EF-2 which moved into Crawford County from northeast Iowa and resulted in several instances of tree and structural damage before dissipating near Boscobel. The second tornado, which was rated EF-1, formed just southeast of Boscobel and moved east-southeast through Grant County resulting in various instances of tree and structural damage before exiting into Iowa County.

A cluster of thunderstorms developed within the vicinity of a strong mid-upper level shortwave trough and a surface low. One supercell tracked from southeast Minnesota through northeast Iowa and into southwest Wisconsin while maintaining is strength during the late afternoon. The storm evolved into a line as it trtacked through south central Wisconsin during the early evening and produced a swath of damaging winds and three tornadoes.

This tornado developed southeast of Boscobel with generally a weak damage path throughout its duration. The tornado was primarily responsible for tree and farm outbuilding damage along its path with some pockets of more significant damage to trees and outbuildings resulting the EF-1 rating. Eventually the tornado progressed eastward into Iowa County resulting in additional tree and outbuilding damage.

This tornado developed out of the same storm that produced a long track tornado west of Boscobel. This tornado developed about 4 miles southeast of Boscobel, continuing east-southeast through Grant County and into northwest Iowa County before dissipating about 6 miles east of Highland. Damage was up to EF-1 magnitude along it's path, consisting of significant tree damage and some heavily damaged farm outbuildings. The tornado intensified slightly as it crossed into Iowa County and impacted the Highland area, with strong rear flank downdraft winds noted along its southern periphery. No injuries were reported.

Tornado appears to have started southwest of Ridgeway, hitting the Town of Ridgeway salt shed near Highway 18/151. It then tracked to the southeast and destroyed a metal shed along County Road H. Otherwise, sporadic tree damage was noted along the end of the path with rear flank downdraft winds occurring to the south-southeast of the path. Some tree damage was noted east of the end of the path but appeared to fan out and not be a path near County Rd K and Mounds View Rd.

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 22:33 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:03 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:37 UTC and running to 00:10 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 20:04 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.

Boscobel (OVS), 20 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), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:45 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 2026 tornado in WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

27 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.