Tornadoes likely spawned from storm
Clean-up continued Tuesday after a line of powerful thunderstorms with strong winds and hail moved through Wisconsin Monday morning. As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, there were 3,600 customers without power statewide, down from 54,000 at the height of the storm, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management. In Crawford County, one mobile home was destroyed in rural Wauzeka. Another home lost part of the roof and is not inhabitable at this time. Flood water damaged Bob & Lou’s Bar and Grill in Steuben as well. Pictured above, two-inch hail was reported in Steuben, and nearly a mile of trees were wiped out on a hillside on Plum Creek Road, in rural Wauzeka. Below, power poles were snapped at their base along Highway 27 between Eastman and Prairie du Chien. In neighboring Grant County, an estimated 20 homes along with 30 agricultural buildings were destroyed or severely damaged primarily around Cassville, Lancaster, Platteville, and Hazel Green. An additional 300 homes had moderate to minor damage. At this time, emergency declarations have been issued for Cassville, Lancaster, Platteville and Grant County. (Photos by Kim Wagner, Frankie Mezera and Randy Martin)
The National Weather Service of La Crosse reported Tuesday that Monday mornings storms may have also brought along several tornadoes. It said the bulk of the damage in southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa came from strong straight line winds from what’s called a bow echo, named because the shape of the storm on radar resembles a bowling line.
NWS La Crosse Meteorologist Andrew Just said, “Occasionally these bow echoes can produce very brief tornadoes along them.” He noted that there may have been one in Crawford County, based on radar data. “We have not been able to completely verify [this]; we are working with emergency management,” he added.
The NWS planned to survey the damage and conclude its report on Wednesday.
The complex of strong to severe thunderstorms produced a combination of large hail, damaging wind, flooding and possibly a few tornadoes in Crawford County (between Wauzeka and Eastman); Grant County (Cassville to Lancaster to north of Platteville); Clayton County, Iowa (Garber area, west and east of there); and Fayette County, Iowa (Maynard to Arlington areas).
A statement from the NWS explained, “We are still trying to confirm if there were any tornadoes. There could have been a few EF0 or EF1 tornadoes in those areas listed above. At the very least, damage indicates peak wind speeds may have exceeded 100 mph at times. Most of the damage relates to winds in the 60 to 80 mph range.
“In addition to the strong winds, flooding materialized after 2 to 5 inches of rain fell in a short period of time.”
