Wisconsin Tornado Outbreak of August 2005

Infobox tornado outbreak
name=Wisconsin Tornado Outbreak of August 2005
image location = Stoughton Tornado.jpg


date=August 18, 2005
duration=8 hours, 40 minutes
fujitascale=F3
tornadoes=28 confirmed
total damages (USD)=$42.537 million
total fatalities=1
areas affected=Wisconsin, Minnesota

The Wisconsin Tornado Outbreak was an outbreak of tornadoes that occurred primarily in southern Wisconsin on August 18, 2005; and another tornado touched down in Minnesota. A total of 27 confirmed tornadoes were reported that day in Wisconsin, the most confirmed tornadoes that have ever occurred in the state in a single day. This broke the previous record of 24 tornadoes set on May 8, 1988, an event also notable as a derecho and for generating a haboob which reached black blizzard intensity and generated its own lightning over portions of southern Wisconsin. The system generating the Stoughton tornado also was accompanied by many reports of significantly severe winds and hail throughout the region.:::Tornado Chart
Total = 28
F0 = 11
F1 = 14
F2 = 2
F3 = 1
F4 = 0
F5 = 0

Confirmed tornadoes

toughton area tornado

. The unusually long-lived tornado traveled mostly east-southeasterly until just east of Stoughton where it began moving almost due easterly.

It passed through rural subdivisions and farms north of Stoughton at around maximum intensity and width of one-half mile (0.8 km), destroying or very heavily damaging 89 houses, heavily damaging 67 houses, with lighter damage to 84 more. Damages from the tornado totaled to $36.89 million. One person was killed and 23 were injured, three seriously. Debris from the Stoughton area was found as far away as Waukesha and Milwaukee counties (two and three counties to the east). This tornado was rated a high-end F3 on the Fujita scale (an F4 rating was considered for it). Federal disaster assistance was requested but FEMA denied a federal disaster area declaration.

Early estimates of the path length and width appeared to point to the tornado rating F5 in the estimates of some experts. Inspection of the damage and determination that the Jefferson County tornado was separate from the Stoughton tornado as well as downward adjustment of path width led to the F4 and later high end F3 ratings. If the tornado did indeed rate F5, it would have been one of a half-dozen or fewer to occur in Wisconsin during the last 120 years.

Initial reports of portions of the path of tornado expanding to over one and a half miles in diameter over farm and swamp land west of US Highway 51 and possibly a second time when the circulation of the tornado may have been partially over Lake Kegonsa making it difficult or impossible to measure the path width at this point. Also seen was a possible touchdown of a smaller, clockwise-rotating tornado on a shorter, parallel path about 5 km/~3 mi north in the town of Dunn visible as a funnel cloud from the south end of McFarland were never confirmed officially.

The damage pattern in the built-up areas of the tornado path and effects on crops and other plants and soil strongly suggest the existence of several suction vortices within the main tornado funnel and/or evolution into a multi-vortex tornado and back before lifting off the ground.

The tornado frequently changed in size and form and eventually became somewhat rain-wrapped after being highly visible; and finally lifted 2.2 miles (3.5 km) north of Busseyville at 6:21 p.m. after traveling 20.0 miles (32.2 km) in an exceptional 53 minutes of continuous track. Numerous other tornadoes occurred during and after this tornado (seven as part of the tornado family associated with the Stoughton supercell, with the last tornado lifting at 7:53 p.m.. Ft. Atkinson was hit three times.

One death was attributed to this tornado. Loss of life was likely minimized due to the efforts of the NWS, local spotters, and Dane County emergency managers. Tornado warnings were put out well in advance of the developing tornado, and TVS (Tornadic Vortex Signatures which NWS WSR88D doppler radar detects) were seen in the Oregon area in advance of the tornado's approach. Spotters maneuvered to the area of the TVS, and once confirmed, sirens were sounded.

Some confusion was caused due to an F0 Tornado occurring in a similar time frame in Columbia County near Lodi, some mistakenly felt the danger had either passed, or was not threatening them.

The Stoughton tornado struck on the day after a devastating fire at one of the city's largest churches (cause unrelated to severe weather) and was the climax of a two-day spate of severe weather in Southern Wisconsin; the previous day several superbolts of lightning were reported as having done extensive damage at various sites in Madison and other Dane County communities including one incident in which a tree many feet in diameter literally exploded when hit by a bolt apparently from a storm 7-10 miles away and with the sun shining at the location at the time.

ee also

*List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
*Tornadoes of 2005

References

External links

* [http://www.stoughtontornado.org/ Stoughton Tornado Website (Jonathon G. Lampe)]
* [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/document/tor/081805.php National Weather Service Milwaukee report]
* [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/events/aug182005_tors.php NWS La Crosse report]
* [http://www.tornadofx.com/stoughton.htm Charity video consisting mostly of the actual tornadoes, focusing on the Stoughton tornado (Scott Weberpal et al)]
* [http://www.midwestsstrc.org/gallery/v/Storm+Images/2005+Storm+Images/August+18th/ Photos from spotter organization MidWest SSTRC. (Dale Bernstein-President, and Dan H.)]
* [http://www.wsto-online.com/play.php?VideoID=6 Stoughton's PEG Channel (Community Access) Video about The Tornado and Church Fire]