Stoughton Tornado - Map

The tornado formed north of the Village of Oregon near the intersection of highways 14 and MM. (Not pictured.) It touched down west of Hawkinson Rd. and moved slowly to the east (15mph; the usual speed of similar tornados is around 30mph).

First responders were amazed by the "ping pong" route the twister took. There were only a few rural subdivisions it could have hit, but the tornado seemed to hit them all. Even out along Skaalen and Kasse roads, the tornado managed to hit farmhouses while leaving the fields behind them relatively intact.

(Original map: MapQuest map of Stoughton area overlaid with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources tornado path information from August 25, 2005 edition of the Stoughton Courier-Hub.)

National Weather Service Track

The National Weather Service radar track map indicated that the tornado formed quite a distance away from Stoughton (over Fitchburg) and remained intact after it left the ground before crossing Interstate 39/90.

(National Weather Service - Milwaukee/Sullivan Weather Forecast Office)

After the tornado finally broke up, the supercell spawned another seven confirmed tornados over Jefferson County to the east, five of them along the same path Stoughton's monster tornado would have travelled.

(National Weather Service - Milwaukee/Sullivan Weather Forecast Office)

Satellite Image of Tornado Path

In this satellite photo you can see that the trail of the tornado was visible from space.

(MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer - MODIS - image captured and labeled by Scott Bachmeier. Also see a time lapse fader by Tom Whittaker.)

Historical Tornado Distribution

The map below, also copied from the National Weather Service's web site, shows where tornados have been detected in Wisconsin from 1974 through 2004. While it's too soon to call our corner of the county "tornado alley", it's worth noting that three out of the four Stoughton-area tornados (including this one) in the last thirty years made tracks at least eight miles long.

(National Weather Service - Milwaukee/Sullivan Weather Forecast Office)