EF1 Tornado — Portage, Wisconsin

2011-05-22 · near Kellner, Portage, Wisconsin

Event narrative

The tornado entered Portage County from Wood County at 6:20 pm CDT (1720 CST) mainly over farmland. The twister continued to snap trees (DI 28, DOD 4) and overturn agricultural irrigation systems. About six miles south of Plover, a nearly half-mile long row of power poles were bent over (DI 24, DOD 3). The tornado crossed Interstate 39 at Coddington Road two miles west of Keene. The tornado grew to nearly 700 yards wide as it passed just north of Keene and heavily damaged a farmstead. A silo was damaged and barn flattened (DI 1, DOD 6). Several outbuildings were also damaged or destroyed. Along the path, at least two dozen irrigation systems were overturned and damaged (resulting in over $1 million in losses) and many hundreds of trees snapped or uprooted. This area also experienced high-end EF1 damage with winds of 100 to 110 mph. The tornado dissipated about nine miles southeast of Plover at about 6:46 pm (1746 CST). The average path width was 300 yards.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms produced high winds, large hail, and a tornado across central and northeast Wisconsin on May 22, 2011. Unstable air combined with a surface boundary and an upper air disturbance to produce thunderstorms. Storms became severe during the afternoon and early evening, causing numerous incidents of large hail and isolated straight-line wind damage. A long-track tornado moved from western Wisconsin into the central part of the state, snapping or uprooting many hundreds of trees and damaging several buildings and farm equipment.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.2948, -89.7247)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 313786. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.