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EF1 tornado in Marathon County, Wisconsin

Tornado August 4, 2016 · Marathon County, Wisconsin

EF1

Rating

4.3 mi

Path length

250 yd

Path width

$100K

Damage as recorded

$5K

Crop damage

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado formed a little over 5 miles east of Colby and quickly traveled east along Huckleberry Road. The tornado affected 16 homesteads and farms. One barn collapsed (DI 1, DOD 6) and three others sustained at least minor damage (DODs 1 and 2). Five homes sustained roof damage (DI 2, DOD 2) and several sheds were damaged or destroyed. A church steeple was damaged and several dozen trees were snapped or uprooted (DI 28, DODs 2-4). Average path width was 125 yards.

The wider storm

A line of thunderstorms, ahead of an approaching cold front, moved into a very unstable atmosphere in central Wisconsin. One storm in western Marathon County produced a tornado. Some of the other storms produced damaging winds that downed trees and power lines.

Began near Cherokee (44.9160, -90.2070).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 642123. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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