April 10th 2011 Wisconsin Tornado outbreak.

[Gavin Groth]

This was the largest severe weather event I have been through and I did not see any posts on it, so I thought I would share...

This outbreak occurred quite early in the year for Wisconsin, considering that most of are snow is not even gone by mid April. I was only 9 years old, so my memory is a bit faded on this, I had no real weather knowledge and barley new what reflectivity was on a radar, so its quite cool loading up the level 2 data and seeing how the day panned out.
There were a total of 15 tornadoes, strongest was a EF3 which was what hit my town.

This line of storms was active all day back into Minnesota. But conditions favorable for tornadoes did not really come until west central Wisconsin. These tornadoes occurred between 6pm-9pm. This was the largest tornado outbreak that NWS Green Bay has handled.
The EF3 that hit my town went nearly over my house (about a quarter mile east of me) Once it past the airport it reached EF3 windspeeds and destroyed 22 homes and 7 businesses. Thankfully nobody in the entire state died from these storms, though there was some injuries reported.
I was not at home during the time of the event, and as a kid I was very upset that I did not get to see the tornado, this is what mostly sparked my interest in weather.
link to NWS Report: April 10, 2011 Tornado Outbreak
Photos of the event (From NWS Report):

 

[Andy Wehrle]

I was living in Milwaukee at the time and this event largely bypassed the southern third of the state. It's annoying when pre-June events miss us to the NORTH (Chetek 2017 being another example), especially since that time of year Lake Michigan usually prevents warm sectors from getting north of I-88 in IL.

Some of the outlook wording on the day prior was very ominous, making it sound like we could be staring at a nearly unprecedented regional outbreak for the upper Midwest/western Great Lakes with multiple long-track EF3+ tornadoes (at the time, I didn't know to adjust for the Broyles hype factor). It didn't pan out quite to that extent, but was still pretty significant by Wisconsin standards.

Even so, that two day sequence (including the outbreak in Iowa the day/evening before which contained an EF4 and three EF3s) heralded the start of perhaps the most incredible 2-3 week period of tornado activity in modern memory, culminating of course in the second "Super Outbreak" across Dixie Alley on the 27th.

 

[Gavin Groth]

I was living in Milwaukee at the time and this event largely bypassed the southern third of the state. It's annoying when pre-June events miss us to the NORTH (Chetek 2017 being another example), especially since that time of year Lake Michigan usually prevents warm sectors from getting north of I-88 in IL.

Some of the outlook wording on the day prior was very ominous, making it sound like we could be staring at a nearly unprecedented regional outbreak for the upper Midwest/western Great Lakes with multiple long-track EF3+ tornadoes (at the time, I didn't know to adjust for the Broyles hype factor). It didn't pan out quite to that extent, but was still pretty significant by Wisconsin standards.

Even so, that two day sequence (including the outbreak in Iowa the day/evening before which contained an EF4 and three EF3s) heralded the start of perhaps the most incredible 2-3 week period of tornado activity in modern memory, culminating of course in the second "Super Outbreak" across Dixie Alley on the 27th.

Thanks for that link of the convection outlook, and also the other info. Looking back know its so cool to replay the entire events with new info i'm finding on the internet. I also did not know about the days leading up to the event and did not even know there was severe weather potential until the tornado warnings were issued, granted I was 9 and had "better" things to focus on. But yea 2011 entire month of April was very bad for severe weather in the U.S. and thank god for archived weather resources.

 

[Jack R. Jester]

Sort of reminds me of April 27th 2011, I was only 9 years old at the time staying down at my families lake lot down at lake Taylorville.

I was super enthusiastic about weather/tornadoes even back then so when the weather started rolling in, I begged my parents to lake me chasing.

So we all piled into the suburban and went out chasing. (Me, my older brother, older sister, my parents, my three dogs, one cat, and my grandmother) As my entire family were put in harms way, we drove around a bit, following the clouds.

As we were doing this, I had my hand-me-down Panasonic Omnivision VHS camcorder recording/annoying everyone in the car.

The sirens then went off, and we soon saw some flashes in the distance (powerlines).

A Tornado then dropped about 100 feet in front of us and almost blew us off the road.

I was obviously ecstatic, and if it weren't for the child locks, I would have probably been killed, since I was only 9 and didn't know any better.

I don't remember much else about that day, this was 9 years ago.

I might still have the tape somewhere.

Who knows?