June 8, 1984 Barneveld Wisconsin F5 Tornado

The 1984 Barneveld, Wisconsin tornado outbreak is a significant severe weather and tornado event that took place across the central United States from North Dakota to Kansas on June 7-8, 1984. The tornado outbreak produced several significant tornadoes including an F5 tornado which traveled through Barneveld, Wisconsin in the early hours of June 8, 1984. The entire outbreak killed at least 13 people across three states including 9 in Barneveld alone.

As the tornado activity calmed down across Iowa and Minnesota in which numerous strong to severe tornadoes struck those areas from mid-afternoon to mid-evening, the severe weather shifted east towards Wisconsin after dark where a tornado watch was issued at about 11:00 PM CDT. A supercell thunderstorm, which affected portions of southeastern Iowa with a few tornadoes at around 9:00 PM CDT before weakening and intensifying shortly after, entered the state from the Iowa/Illinois border at around midnight near Dubuque. Shortly after 12:30 AM CDT, it produced its first tornado near Belmont in Lafayette County and lifted near Mineral Point in Iowa County about 15 miles southwest of Barneveld.

A few minutes later, a much stronger tornado developed northeast of Mineral Point and traveled through Barneveld and up north into Columbia County before lifting shortly after 1:30 AM after traveling 36 miles (62 kilometers). A loud rumble of thunder, which cut electricity off just a few minutes before the tornado struck Barneveld, awakened residents of the town. The loss of power prevented the sirens from being activated prior to its arrival. At its peak, the tornado was nearly a quarter-mile wide. Other tornadoes rated from F1 to F3 touched down from Columbia County to Dodge County until after 3:00 AM CDT when activity finally weakened.

The tornado was responsible for 9 deaths and nearly 200 injuries in Barneveld while causing about $25 million in damage. In total, 3 churches and 93 homes were destroyed as well as 17 businesses out of the town's 18, including the library, municipal building, fire station, bank and post office. The village's water tower, though damaged, was not toppled by the winds. In addition, 64 other homes were badly damaged. Some of the debris including paper work were later found about 135 miles away from the village. Other tornadoes in Wisconsin caused two additional injuries and about $15 million worth of damage but no additional fatalities.

The Barneveld tornado was more particular as it is was one of the rare tornadoes to occur during the overnight hours well after sunset although EF5/F5 tornadoes have occurred elsewhere during night, including more recently in Greensburg, Kansas on May 4, 2007 as well as in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1998, downtown Lubbock, Texas in 1970 and Udall, Kansas in 1955, the last being the deadliest Kansas tornado ever with over 80 deaths.

The Barneveld tornado was the first F5 in Wisconsin since the Menomonie Tornado in 1958 which killed 20. 12 years later in 1996, the Oakfield Tornado, the most recent F5 in Wisconsin, did not cause any fatalities while the deadliest tornado in Wisconsin history was the 1899 in New Richmond, where 117 were killed, making it one of the 10 deadliest tornadoes in American history. In the United States, it was the first F5 tornado since 1982 where an F5 touched down near Broken Bow, Oklahoma while the next one occurred on May 31, 1985 in Wheatland, Pennsylvania during the 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak.

The names of the people who died in Barneveld:

Robert Arneson
Matthew Aschliman
Ralph Hammerly, Jr.
Kirk Holland
Bruce Simon
Cassandra Simon
Jill Simon
Elaine Slewitzke
James Slewitzke

June 8, 1984 Barneveld Wisconsin F5 Tornado Radar data: NWS WSR-57 Neenah, WI (EEW) (Wavelength: 10.3 cm / 2.890 GHz Power output: 410,000 watts Maximum range: 494 nm)

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Film & Animation

[ssivertsen1008]

I was 10 years old when this tornado struck. I remember doing a report on it for science class. Even at age 10 I could never fully understand how powerful this particular tornado was. It completely wiped this town OFF THE MAP.

[supercell1995]

@1982Moonbird

oh i heard all about that I was tracking that storm on radar, it looked scary. Hope you did alright!

[1982Moonbird]

@supercell1995 sure..I'm always glad to learn new things about meteorology (sp?)....Right now I'm still a little dumbstruck, because as irony would have it, my hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama was about wiped out 2 days ago by a long-track tornado that hopscotched it's way clean across the state.

[supercell1995]

@1982Moonbird

There were radars around the US even in the 50's, such as the WSR-57D radar.

Many cities had them, however the technology for most of these havent improved until the 90's when they started to have velocity data and colored reflectivity. ill send a message about it if you want

[1982Moonbird]

It's really sad that in hindsight you can see the hook as clear as day on this thing, but that was before Doppler had been implemented nationwide