September 13, 2005: Straight-line wind across six counties

A strong cold front pushed into an unseasonably hot and humid airmass over south-central and southeast Wisconsin during the afternoon and evening, resulting in severe storms with damaging straight-line winds. Temperatures ranged from the mid 80s across south central Wisconsin to near record highs in the lower 90s across southeast Wisconsin. There were primarily two areas that were affected by severe thunderstorms. A broken line of severe storms from Marquette to Dane County tracked east northeast into Dodge, Fond du Lac, Washington, and Sheboygan counties. This line produced damaging wind gusts from between 50 to 62 knots (58 mph to 71 mph). Tree and power line damage was reported across many areas affected by this line of storms. Another area affected by severe storms stretched from Rock county through Walworth, Waukesha, Milwaukee, and Ozaukee counties as one large supercell developed and tracked northeast along I-43. Several reports of damaging winds estimated in excess of 70 knots (80 mph) were collected from portions of Waukesha county. Widespread tree and power line damage was noted from Mukwonago through Brookfield. More sporatic tree and power line damage was reported across northern Milwaukee and southern Ozaukee counties.