EF1 tornado in Walworth County, Wisconsin

This tornado inflicted minor damage on 3 structures and moderate damage on 2 structures in the County of Walworth (homes/pole sheds/barn), and uprooted or damaged a couple dozen trees. It spun up very near a drainage ditch/creek just west of West Court/Center Drive which which branches west from CTH U. This tornado crossed into Kenosha County about 0.4 mile north of where CTH U in Walworth County crosses the county line and becomes CTH F in Walworth County. It contiuned for several miles in western Kenosha County. The average path width was about 50 yards in Walworth County. The winds were estimated at 93 mph (DI 1 - SBO, DOD 5). The specific starting location in Walworth County was 42.54884,-88.33343, and the ending location in Walworth County was 42.56342,-88.30533. Refer to the western Kensoha County tornado event to see a map plot of the entire tornado path.

Very rare, mid-winter, severe storms affected parts of south-central and southeast Wisconsin on January 7th - in the form of two tornadoes and scattered, large, hailstones, and downburst winds. The last time a tornado occurred in January in Wisconsin was on the 24th in 1967 in Green and Rock Counties (25-mile track). On January 7th, a low pressure moved northeast through western Wisconsin, allowing a warm front to push through southern Wisconsin. Temperatures rose into the lower to mid 60s over southeast Wisconsin with surface dewpoints peaking in the mid to upper 50s, resulting in moderate amounts of instablity. Strong, veering winds from the surface to the jet stream level generated sufficient wind shear that supported rotating updrafts in scattered supercell thunderstorms over southeast Wisconsin. A supercell thunderstorm, that had spun up a tornado in northeastern Illinois previously, then crossed the state line into south-central Walworth County (southeast of the city of Walworth) where it intesified and eventually spun up a tornado near Pell Lake that traveled into western Kenosha County. Another supercell spun up a tornado over the northern reaches of the city of Kensoha. Other scattered thunderstorms on this day across south-central and southeast Wisconsin dumped large hail up to 3/4 inch in diameter.