1984-04-27: Wisconsin

[rachelgkonkle]

Today is the 35th anniversary of this outbreak across Wisconsin, which was the weather event that piqued my interest in severe storms. I was eight years old and living in Appleton when one of the killer tornadoes struck on the other side of town. Between this event and the Barneveld tornado a few weeks later, I was hooked on storms and checked out every weather book from the library that summer!

The WFOs in Green Bay and Milwaukee have sites with information about the April 1984 outbreak:

April 27, 1984 Tornado Outbreak
Wales Tornado - April 27, 1984

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Another example of an early season outbreak which produced tornadoes surprisingly far north and also east in Wisconsin, given how the stabilizing influence of the still winter-cooled Lake Michigan usually negatively impacts severe convective weather in a classic synoptic pattern with a low to the west producing backed (southeasterly) surface winds.

 

[John Paulson]

This was the same storm system that produced a tornado the night before in the Minneapolis suburbs that is mentioned on this board.