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EF3 tornado in Grant County, Wisconsin

Tornado August 7, 2021 · Grant County, Wisconsin

EF3

Rating

9.4 mi

Path length

1,100 yd

Path width

$430K

Damage as recorded

$25K

Crop damage

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,100 yards (0.62 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 NWS storm survey confirmed that an EF3 tornado occurred across northern Grant County. The tornado started in Boscobel where damage to trees, power poles and power lines occurred. The tornado then moved east/southeast before dissipating south of Blue River. Along the path, six homes sustained enough damage to be considered total losses while numerous other had minor to moderate damage. No injuries were reported.

The wider storm

Several rounds of storms moved across western Wisconsin during the afternoon of August 7th. One of these storms produced an EF3 tornado that started in Boscobel (Grant County) and traveled east/southeast before dissipating south of Blue River (Grant County). Along the path of the tornado, 6 homes sustained enough damage to be considered total losses but no injuries occurred. Flash flooding caused a mud slide along State Highway 33 southeast of La Crosse (La Crosse County) and washed out part of County Road NN south of St. Joseph (La Crosse County). Water also covered portions of State Highway 27 and County Roads J and X near Melvina (Monroe County). Coon Creek went out of its banks and caused extensive damage to the baseball field in Coon Valley (Vernon County). A county wide disaster was declared by Vernon County officials because of the flood damage.

Began near Boscobel (43.1305, -90.7199).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 975879. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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