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Fond du Lac County Tornado
(very weak)
June 8, 2003
Mid Afternoon |
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 On Sunday, June 8, 2003, a weak tornado spun up about 3.5 miles east/southeast of the city of Fond du Lac near Reinzi Cemetary.
It moved north/northeast for about 0.8 miles to just north of the area where Artesian Rd. crosses Taycheedeah Creek. It was
photographed by a tornado chaser who saw perodic swirls of dust/dirt at the base of the tornado. Only some minor matting down
of vegetation was noted. The tornado strength was a minimal F0 with winds probably on on the order of 50 to 60 mph at most.
Maximum width was about 30 yards. |
Elsewhere, a funnel cloud was photographed by a Town of Lamartine fire fighter who was positioned about 1 mile south of Ripon,
looking southwest. His photographs show that the condensation funnel developed downward a bit, however, no visible signs of tornadic
rotation at the ground level was noted. His picture was taken about 3 PM CDT.
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| During the same afternoon, a tornado was photographed over Lake Winnebago. The story and a picture can be seen on the Green Bay
NWS web site (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/grb/events/060803/tornado1.html).
This tornado was observed by several people who were taking part in a fishing contest.
All of this convective actiivity was associated with a cold-core, upper-level, low pressure system which was moving southeast across the
Fond du Lac county area during the afternoon hours of June 8, 2003. Cloud bases were low due to evaporation of moisture from previous
rounds of morning rains. Steep lapse rates coupled with sunshine in between the showers and thunderstorms, allowed for the formation
of vigorous updraft towers. Of course, large-scale, atmospheric rotation due to the low pressure itself allowed for some of the
thunderstorms to develop rotating updrafts.
A sincere thanks is extended to the spotters for their willingness to share their photographs.
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