Hail in Columbia County, Wisconsin

A slow-moving thunderstorm moved from the Dekorra area southeast through the Poynette area to the North Leeds area, leaving in its wake a lot of crop damage due to hail. A roughly 40 to 45-minute hail shower (stones up to the size of quarters) fell in a band from about 3 miles south-southeast of Dekorra along Kent Rd. to the McKenzie Environmental Education Center just northeast of Poynette. Crop, vegetable, and fruit damage was noted, and in some cases, an entire year's crop was lost due to hail damage. Many residential homes and vehicles were damaged. Hail depth on some roads reached 8 inches and had to be plowed off the roads, especially along Kent Rd. and near the McKenzie Center. The crop damage estimate is based on a newspaper report which quoted a USDA report. The property damage is purely an estimate based on a variety of reports.

Very slow moving clusters of thunderstorms developed across south-central Wisconsin during the early afternoon hours of June 25th. Very heavy rains within these storms produced 3 to 5 inches of rain in some areas and resulted in flash flooding near Sun Prairie (Dane Co., Wyocena to Arlington (Columbia Co.), and Middleton (Dane Co.). Road washouts, gravel shoulder washouts, and basement flooding were the main result from this flooding. A large area of southern Columbia County had considerable flood and hail damage - refer to details in the specific line entries for flash flooding and hail events for this date. The slow movement of the the thunderstorms amplified the damage.