EF1 tornado in Kenosha County, Wisconsin

This tornado was the 2nd of two tornadoes to affect southeastern Wisconsin on January 7th. It spun up near the intersection of CTH L (18th St.) and 47th Ave. and moved east/northeast through the northern reaches of the city of Kenosha, and dissipated just north of Carthage College and just short of Lake Michigan. In the Civil Town of Somers it resulted in minor damage to 2 homes, and major damage to one home. In the City of Kenosha, it affected one home, inflicted minor damage to 21 homes, inflicted major damage to 6 homes, and destroyed 5 homes. Additionally, it destroyed one church in the City of Kenosha. Several power-lines were toppled and there were transformer explosions. Dozens of trees were damaged or uprooted. Average path width was about 50 yards. The maximum winds were estimated at around 95 mph (DI 27 - TH, DOD 3). This tornado was photographed and video taped. The specific starting location was 42.62399,-87.86591, and the ending location was 42.63127,-87.81820.

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.