In a chaotic weather week throughout Wisconsin, some National Weather Service stations set a record for the most tornado warnings issued in a single day.
As of April 19, no Wisconsin counties remain on tornado watch. But at the event’s peak, on April 17, about 45 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties were on a tornado watch.
Across the four NWS stations that cover Wisconsin, the NWS declared 92 different tornado warnings. From April 13 through April 19, the Milwaukee station issued 43 warnings, the La Crosse station issued 35, the Green Bay station issued 11 and the Duluth station issued three warnings.
Officials at the La Crosse NWS station reported 26 warnings on April 17 alone, the most tornado warnings their station issued on a single day since the office was built in 1995.
Final confirmations of tornado touchdowns likely won’t be complete until Tuesday, April 21, NWS officials told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Survey teams and station meteorologists are still determining details like the extent of damages, wind speeds, path lengths and tornado funnel widths.
Wisconsin gets 23 tornadoes every year on average, according to the State Climatology Office. Most tornadoes occur in June and July.
So far, the NWS has confirmed 19 tornadoes since April 13 alone. The final April tally could be as high as 24 tornadoes if all radar-confirmed events end up with an EF rating. April 17 was the busiest tornado day with at least 13 tornadoes confirmed throughout Wisconsin.
The record for tornadoes in a year was set in 2005 with 62 tornadoes confirmed over the year in Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: NWS issued over 90 tornado warnings across Wisconsin during historic storms
Reporting by Caden Perry, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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