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F2 tornado in Lafayette County, Wisconsin

Tornado May 15, 1998 · Lafayette County, Wisconsin

Rating

20.0 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

Injuries

$1.7M

Damage as recorded

$140K

Crop damage

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A supercell thunderstorm, after dropping a couple tornadoes in northeast Iowa, eventually moved northeast into Lafayette county, creating another tornado. This tornado touched down just southwest of Benton and hopped/skipped northeast for 20 miles. It caused moderate to severe damage to 40 different farms and their outbuildings, and homes. Numerous power lines were downed. Eleven people were injured: 2 children near Cuba city, 3 children southwest of Truman, and 6 adults in a vehicle on Highway 81 south of Benton. Several farm fields sustained damage.

The wider storm

After the F2 tornado tore through Lafayette county a series of severe thunderstorms pummeled southcentral and southeast Wisconsin with numerous reports of tree limb damage and trees downed, which in turn downed a few power lines. The highest reported wind gust was 65 mph near Reedsburg (Sauk Co.). Other notable damage included roofs and doors ripped off of buildings in Mayville (Dodge Co.) and a deck ripped off a house in Ripon (Fond du Lac Co.) where several cars where also damaged by felled trees.

Began near Benton (42.5500, -90.4000).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5641417. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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