F0 tornado in Dodge County, Wisconsin

A tornado spun up at 1326CST at a location 1.5 SSE of Rubicon about 0.2 mile south of the intersection of STH 60 and Resthaven Rd. It tracked east-southeast and exited Dodge County at 1327CST about 2.4 southeast of Rubicon (or about 0.6 mile south of where STH 60 goes east into Washington Co.). Only some minor tree damage was noted with this segment of the tornado track, which was rated F0 with winds of 35-63 knots (40-72 mph).

On a day one would not expect any tornadoes, a couple tornadoes did manage to spin up in southern Wisconsin. A fairly abnormal weather situation developed during the early afternoon hours of June 18th. After a large area of stratiform rain moved east out of Wisconsin, a line of scattered thunderstorms developed on the western edge of the rain shield. Two storms developed supercellular characteristics and produced a couple tornadoes - one that moved from Dodge County into Washington County, and another brief one in Dane county. In addition, a couple funnel clouds were reported. Specific details of both tornadoes are found above. Synoptically, a trough pushed through south-central and southeast Wisconsin during the late morning and afternoon hours. A moist airmass left behind from morning rain allowed for low cloud base heights. Sufficient low-level vertical wind shear was present for rotating storms. Once rotation was evident in the thunderstorms, tornadoes were easily formed because of low cloud heights and decent low-level CAPE.