Two historic, extreme weather events separated by just over 100 miles happened on one July day in the upper Midwest.
On July 18, 1996, 29 years ago this evening, a violent tornado roared through the town of Oakfield, Wisconsin. This less-than-quarter-mile-wide drill bit of a twister produced mainly F3 to F4 damage, but then intensified to an F5 just east of the village. (Note: The Fujita or F-scale was used prior to 2007’s implementation of the modern Enhanced Fujita or EF-scale.)
Four homes were completely demolished, with only empty foundations left. In all, 60 homes, six businesses and two churches were destroyed and another 130 homes and businesses suffered damage, according to the National Weather Service in Milwaukee.
Two vehicles were tossed up to 400 yards away, while others were crushed into almost unrecognizable balls. Canceled checks lofted by the tornado were found 125 miles away across Lake Michigan near Muskegon, Michigan.
Incredibly, nobody was killed in this tornado, but 12 were injured. Oakfield remains one of only three F5 (or EF5) tornadoes on record in Wisconsin and the only known F/EF5 U.S. tornado to have occurred in July.
That same morning, a record drenching across the western and southern sides of Chicagoland triggered major flash and river flooding. The western suburb of Aurora picked up 16.91 inches of rain in 24 hours, still the state’s all-time 24-hour rain record.
This torrential rain pushed the Des Plaines, DuPage and Fox rivers to record levels. Six people were killed.
FEMA estimated 35,000 homes had flood damage and more than 4,300 people had to evacuate from flooded areas, according to a summary published in 1999. This was the state’s second-costliest weather disaster (estimated $645 million damage) behind only 1993’s Great Mississippi River flood.
Oakfield Wisconsin F5 tornado July 18 1996
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.