| On Friday, May 30, 2003, a heavy-precipitaiton (HP) supercell thunderstorm developed over northeastern
Lafayette County between 3 and 4 pm CDT, and commenced to move southeast through Green County and southwest
Rock County. It spawned a tornado in southeast Green County, at 5:52 pm CDT at a point 1.9 miles north-northwest
of Oakley. The tornado exited Green County at 6:04 pm CDT, where County Trunk Highway T doglegs to the west
from the border with Rock County. The tornado continued to move southeast at about 30 mph to an end
location 2.3 miles southeast of Avon in southwest Rock County, on the west bank of the Sugar River at about
6:12 pm CDT. This tornado has been given a preliminary F-scale rating of F1 (winds 73 to 112 mph). It's path
length in Green County was 6.0 miles, and in Rock County it was 4.1 miles, for a total of 10.1 miles.
The damage width at the ground was about 100 yards.
There were no injuries or deaths. At the beginning of the tornado's path, a home sustained light
damage to it shutters and siding. Near the Green-Rock County line, a roof panel was blown off a large
aluminum storage shed, and another house sustained tree limb damage to its windows, siding, and roof.
In Rock county, a section of a large field sprinkler was flipped over and twisted. On another farm,
a couple grain bins were blown over, or pushed off their foundation. At the tornado's end, some plastic
snow fencing was ripped and twisted around fence poles. In addition, tree damage was noted along the
tornado's entire path, but there were short segments where there was little or no tree damage.
A couple mobile tornado chasers were in the vicinity, and they managed to video tape and photograph
this tornado. Their information was instrumental in determining the tornado path and associated times.
Some of their images are part of this write-up.
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