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EF1 tornado in Waukesha County, Wisconsin

Tornado July 29, 2021 · Waukesha County, Wisconsin

EF1
Rating
12.4 mi
Whole path
150 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Jefferson County → Jefferson County → Waukesha County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

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 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

This was 1 of 17 tornadoes to occur in Wisconsin on the night of July 28th into the early morning hours of July 29th. This was the 14th overall tornado for the event. A line of storms developed in northern Wisconsin and pushed south into southern Wisconsin in the overnight hours of the 28th into the 29th of July with mainly brief tornadoes and damaging winds occurring.

This tornado began in eastern Jefferson County and entered Waukesha County just north of where the Bark River crosses the county line. The tornado tracked to the southeast and ended up crossing County Rd Z and ending by the north end of School Section Lake. The main tree damage was noted at St. Bruno Cemetery.

The wider storm

A round of severe storms tracked into southwest Wisconsin during the early morning hours on July 28th. Followed by another round of stronger, more widespread thunderstorms that begin to dive south across central Wisconsin late in the evening on July 28th through the early morning hours on July 29th.

Began near Utica (43.0129, -88.5417).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

8 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Columbia CountyEF1 Dane CountyEF1 Waukesha CountyEF1 Waukesha CountyEF0 Dane CountyEF0 Columbia CountyEF0 Jefferson CountyEF0 Jefferson County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 973876. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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