Oakfield Tornado

soldiers to be called in to aid victims and clear debris.

The tornado was strong enough to level the Friday Canning Company, while throwing up millions of empty cans and leaving them sprawled over a 50 mile (80 km) radius. Besides structural damage to buildings the tornado was very costly to farmers; Crops, livestock, and farm equipment were also gone. The original National Weather Service report from Milwaukee/Sullivan categorized the tornado to be an F3 to F4 tornado on the Fujita scale. It was later upgraded to an F5, the most severe tornado possible. It would be the only F5 tornado to hit the United States that year. The tornado width when it reached its maximum strength was about 100 yards (92m) wide, making it one of the narrowest F5's on record. The storm was documented by an experienced storm chaser.

There were eleven other tornadoes in Wisconsin from this storm complex, with one death at Marytown, Wisconsin. [ [http://www.aos.wisc.edu/uwaosjournal/Volume3/AOS453/FCS_Geiser.pdf Wisconsin Tornado Outbreak of July 18, 1996: Formation of Tornadic Supercells] , WARNING: PDF file, Renee Geiser, Retrieved October 9 2007]

Tornado table

References

See also

* List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes
* List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

External links

* [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/document/tor/oakfield_7-18-96.php Oakfield Tornado write-up] from the National Weather Service
* [http://www.tornadoproject.com/past/oakfotos.htm Photographs of tornado from storm chaser]
* [http://www.tornadoproject.com/past/oakdam.htm Aerial photographs from a day and a half later]
* [http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornadomap.php?yr=1996&mo=7&day=18&st=%25&fu=1&co=&l=500&submit=Search&format=basic&p=1&s=1 Map of July 18, 1996 tornadoes]