Wisconsin is seeing higher than average number of tornadoes in 2024

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – It has been an active year for tornadoes in the Badger State.

As we near the end of July, Wisconsin has already seen nearly double the average amount of tornadoes than in a typical year.

“We’re already up to 42 that have been counted across the state. Usually, in a typical year, Wisconsin sees about 23. We’re well ahead of normal in terms of tornado activity in 2024,” says National Weather Service Meteorologist Mike Kurz.

Kurz says multiple factors led to an active early summer that helped raise the tornado numbers.

“We were coming out of a strong El Niño winter, so that kind of fueled things for an active severe weather season to start. The rest of this summer, as it’s been progressing, has been kind of typical. More active severe weather to start led to the quick turnaround in the tornado numbers compared to 2023, where the state was much closer to normal,” says Kurz.

Kurz adds that advances in radar technology have also assisted meteorologists in finding tornadoes that may not have been discovered in previous years.

“We can see the evidence that these tornadoes are giving us in technology. We’re able to see that better and we can put warnings out for those. Whereas in years past, they might have gone unwarned because we couldn’t detect those with the technology at the time,” says Kurz.

The National Weather Service warns even though tornadoes are most likely in may through July, the possibility for more tornadoes before the year is over is still likely.

We’re not out of the woods yet for that. Going into the month of August can still be very active for severe weather and even into early September. It’s more so when you get into the heart of the fall season is when severe weather activity usually starts to taper off,” says Kurz.

The current record for the most tornadoes in a single year for Wisconsin was in 2005 where 62 tornadoes occurred.

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