Wisconsin
Winter Tornadoes Stun Wisconsin
The first tornadoes ever recorded in Wisconsin in the usually frigid month of February tore through mostly rural areas on a day that broke records for warmth, setting up the perfect scenario for the type of severe weather normally seen in the late spring and summer. The storms left a swath of destruction that included dead and missing cows, roofs blown off homes, destroyed storage sheds and barns, trashed vehicles, and shattered windows. At least two tornadoes were confirmed south of Madison, and the National Weather Service was investigating reports of several more spawned from storms that swept across the southeastern part of the state around 5:30pm Thursday.
One confirmed tornado near Evansville was a “high end” F2, the weather service said. Those tornadoes are described as significant, with winds in this particular twister topping out at 135mph. It was on the ground for 36 minutes, traveling 24.5 miles with a maximum width of 500 yards. Another tornado that touched down near Juda was an F1 with peak winds of 110mph and on the ground for 14 minutes, covering 8.35 miles with a maximum width of 50 yards, the weather service said. There were no reports of significant injuries. Officials reported dozens of buildings, power lines, and other structures damaged in the path of the storm that formed in eastern Iowa and died out near Milwaukee.
Winter tornadoes are almost unheard of, especially in northern states. The temperature was a record high for the date: 59 degrees. Connie Arndt, 72, stood in disbelief Friday among the debris of a rental house she owns outside Evansville. “All of us are in denial that this is February,” she said. “It’s an absolute shock.” Matt Artis, 34, said he heard a “big bang.” He got his mother and their dog into the bathroom just as the tornado hit. He said he emerged from the bathroom, looked up, and saw nothing but the night sky. The tornado had torn the roof from their home.
(More tornadoes stories.)
Reaction to Shawn Eichorst as potentially the next Wisconsin AD
On the Terrace View podcast, John Steppe and Mark Stewart give initial thoughts on reported connection between Shawn Eichorst and open UW AD job.
MADISON – Shawn Eichorst will start as Wisconsin’s athletic director with a higher annual salary than his predecessor.
Eichorst will make an annual salary of $1.6 million along with built-in annual increases and incentives, a university spokesman told the Journal Sentinel.
That is above Chris McIntosh’s $1.5 million annual salary for the 2025-26 academic year. (That consisted of $1 million from the university and $500,000 from the UW Foundation.) McIntosh’s salary was set to increase by $50,000 for each year of his contract, which would have gone through June 30, 2029.
It also is well above Marcus Sedberry’s $875,000 annual salary for the nearly three months when he was interim AD. Sedberry’s salary is set to return to $334,805 “plus any intervening pay adjustments,” according to the offer letter from April.
An open records request from the Journal Sentinel for Eichorst’s contract, which will include more details about the increases and incentives, is pending.
Eichorst previously served as the deputy AD and chief operating officer at Texas for the last eight years. He also was Miami’s AD in 2011-12 and Nebraska’s AD from 2012-17. Before Miami, the Lone Rock native spent five years working with the Badgers under Barry Alvarez.
A 9-year-old child died Tuesday evening after drowning in a western Wisconsin water park.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says first responders were called to the Campfire Cove Aqua Park in Rural Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, around 8:15 p.m.
Though they attempted lifesaving measures, the child died at the scene.
The incident is under investigation, the sheriff’s office says.
A missing Wisconsin teen was found safe after mysteriously vanishing from home four years ago as her family had believed she was “lured away.”
Joniah Walker, 19, was safely discovered on May 25, the Milwaukee Police Department told WISN on Tuesday.
Police officials didn’t disclose where Walker was found or provide any further information on the case, including whether the teen was with someone else.
Walker, then 15, had disappeared from her Milwaukee home on June 23, 2022.
Walker’s mother, Tanesha Howard, said she last saw her daughter lying in bed when she left for work the morning of her disappearance, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
“Joniah was lying in bed because she had just finished school. I went in to give her a hug before leaving for work,” Howard told the organization.
The mother and daughter duo had talked on the phone several times throughout the day before Walker “suddenly stopped responding.”
Walker was supposed to meet her father to apply for a summer work permit but failed to arrive at the designated time.
“He called me and said that Joniah wasn’t picking up her phone,” Howard said. “That is when I immediately knew something was wrong. I left work right away.”
A nearby ring camera captured Walker leaving the apartment complex at around 2:30 p.m. in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood, a mile-and-a-half north of Downtown Milwaukee.
Video footage showed the teen carrying a large green backpack.
It was the last known sighting of Walker until she was reportedly found last month.
Howard believed her daughter had met someone online after she deleted her digital footprint and never returned.
“Somebody stole her…that was my first instinct,” Howard said. “But when I saw that she left with a big backpack that I had never seen, that’s when I knew. I was like, someone lured her away.”
The protective mother issued multiple pleas for her daughter to come home, begging Walker to “call me,” WISN reported in July 2022.
“She is my youngest daughter, so I always call her by ‘baby girl’ because that is exactly who she is, my baby girl,” she said. “She is what I would describe as a perfect daughter. She is angelic, soft spoken and very intelligent.”
Walker was one of the faces of a legislative push by Wisconsin State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) seeking to pass a bill to create a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force, according to Fox6 Now.
Stubbs says she believed Walker was still alive, telling Howard to hold out hope for her daughter’s return.
“I believed Joniah was still living, and I said that to her – I don’t believe Joniah is dead, it’s only a matter of time,” Stubbs told the outlet.
“I think right now, the family needs their privacy,” Stubbs added. “I know there are so many questions, but I think as time goes by when they are ready to tell their story, they will tell it.”
-
Los Angeles, Ca40 minutes agoFamily of boy, 8, killed by falling tree branch at Calabasas park to get $14.6M
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoThe worst Detroit sports uniform from every pro team
-
San Francisco, CA1 hour agoDiscovery Bay driver arrested for San Francisco fatal vehicle collision | Contra Costa Herald
-
Dallas, TX1 hour agoErling Haaland’s Dallas Western wear purchase goes viral
-
Miami, FL1 hour agoMiami’s FIFA Fan Fest draws thousands to Bayfront Park to watch Team USA win World Cup match against Bosnia
-
Boston, MA1 hour ago2026 Yukon Denali Ultimate gets pricey, but tops the charts
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoNuggets Sign Marvin Bagley to 1-Year Deal: What It Means
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoFOURTH OF JULY 2026: Here’s where Seattle Parks will leave the lights on longer
