EF2 Tornado — La Crosse, Wisconsin

2011-05-22 · near La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin

Event narrative

This tornado originally began in Houston County Minnesota and crossed into La Crosse near Target Lake. The first damage occurred on Green Island where numerous mature trees were snapped off and substantial damage occurred to the Green Island ice arena. The tornado then moved into a residential area where buildings sustained partial roof removal and garages were heavily damaged. Buildings in a small industrial area near the intersection of Green Bay Street and West Ave had walls partially collapse causing the roofs to subsequently collapse and a small apartment complex had its roof cleanly removed. After this, the tornado tracked primarily through residential areas until it dissipated causing mainly tree damage and light structural damage to homes and garages. An estimated 200 homes and businesses were damaged, 9 homes were destroyed and another 6 buildings condemned and uninhabitable. An emergency shelter was set up where up to 40 people sought refuge at times with 14 spending the night. This tornado was the first to hit the city of La Crosse since 1966 when a tornado moved across the airport. Total damages were estimated to be just over $15 million. An estimated 6,300 customers lost power as a result of the tornado. There was not a single ambulance call right after the tornado, but some did occur during the following days during clean up.

Wider weather episode

During the afternoon of May 22nd, severe thunderstorms developed along a cold front as it moved through western Wisconsin. These severe thunderstorms produced three confirmed tornadoes, two of which were rated as EF2 with the other being an EF1. The first tornado hit the southern sections of the city of La Crosse (La Crosse County) and caused an estimated 15 million dollars in damage where almost 200 buildings were damaged including 9 homes that were destroyed. The second tornado tracked from extreme eastern La Crosse County into Monroe County passing through the southern portions of Sparta (Monroe County). Considerable damage occurred in Sparta with a local car dealership sustaining damage to vehicles on the sales lot. The third tornado was on the ground for almost 65 miles as it tracked from eastern Monroe County, across northern Juneau County, through southern Wood County and into Portage County before dissipating. Damage estimates for this tornado in Monroe and Juneau Counties are close to 6 million dollars with most of this occurring in Juneau County where a cranberry farm was severely damaged.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.7882, -91.2585)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 306664. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.