Thunderstorm Wind in Menominee (c) County, Wisconsin

Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree and power line damage.

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across much of central, north central, and eastern Wisconsin during the evening hours of July 19, 2019. Widespread tree and power line damage was reported from central Wisconsin into the Fox Valley and lake shore. WPS reported over 50,000 outages at the height of the storm.

The worst damage was associated with a macroburst, a large downburst of straight-line winds that affected a large swath from Pelican Lake in Oneida County, southeast through Langlade and Oconto counties. Hundreds of thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted, resulting in damage to dozens of homes and cottages. The damage path was about 60 miles long and up to 10 miles wide at times. Winds were likely near 100 mph in the hardest hit areas near Lily in northeast Langlade County and near the Langlade-Oconto County line southwest of Boot Lake.