EF2 Tornado — Juneau, Wisconsin

2011-05-22 · near Mather, Juneau, Wisconsin

Event narrative

This tornado entered into Juneau County southwest of Mather and then tracked northeast across the Necedah Wildlife Refuge between Mather and Finley damaging numerous trees. As the tornado approached Finley, it grew in size and was nearly a half mile wide as it crossed County Road F east of Finley. In this area, numerous trees were snapped or blown down with some of them landing on nearby homes. At a cranberry business east of Finley, all of the outbuildings and sheds were demolished and tossed into nearby fields and a loading deck platform and trucks were heavily damaged. Thick wooden power poles in this area were snapped or sheared off over a half mile long stretch. The tornado then weakened as it moved northeast toward the Wood-Juneau County line with damage to trees and some minor roof and siding damage. Total damages across Juneau county from this tornado were estimated to be $4.4 million.

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 → (44.1161, -90.3124)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 308105. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.