Thunderstorm Wind — Kenosha, Wisconsin

2011-06-30 · near Somers, Kenosha, Wisconsin

Event narrative

Law enforcement officials reported numerous trees and power lines down across far eastern Kenosha County from severe thunderstorm winds that gusted up to 75 mph (65 knots) as estimated by a trained spotter. A 31-year-old man riding a motorcycle was killed when a tree blew over on him in the 7600 block of 25th Avenue. A Pleasant Prairie woman injured her hip when she was struck by debris form a shed. Two other residents of the City of Kenosha were injured when they touched live wires brought down by the strong winds. Many large branches were also broken off by the powerful winds, which also damaged several homes. Officials estimate 500 to 800 trees were destroyed or badly damaged by the winds.

Wider weather episode

A large supercell thunderstorm, just offshore over Lake Michigan, produced strong outflow winds that moved into far southeast Milwaukee County, and eastern sections of Racine and Kenosha counties during the evening of June 30th. Wind gusts up to 82 mph (71 knots) felled or caused extensive damage to numerous large trees that damaged homes, garages and vehicles, as well as dropped power lines across the affected areas. A motorcyclist in Kenosha was killed when a tree fell on him. At one point, 26,000 customers were without power in southeast Wisconsin. It took several days to restore power, with all customers back online by 3 pm CDT on Sunday, July 3rd.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.6500, -87.8115)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 327430. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.