Hailstorms, tornadoes strike Wisconsin amid latest burst of severe weather
Tornadoes, baseball-sized hail and destructive winds jolted parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois on Thursday afternoon amid a multiday stretch of severe weather.
The worst of Thursday's storms was focused on Wisconsin, including a tornado that struck New Richmond, Wisconsin, located about 40 miles northeast of Minnesota. The extent of the damage is still unclear, but local resident Tara Olson captured footage of the twister swirling nearby. This was one of multiple tornadoes reported across the region.
Large hail was common with most of the severe storms across the region with NOAA's Storm Prediction Center receiving over 150 reports of severe hail, ranging from the size of quarters to baseballs. One of the hailstorms tracked directly over Madison, Wisconsin, around the evening commute with the largest hail near the city measuring 2 inches in diameter. Another hailstorm pelted Milwaukee in the early evening with quarter-sized hailstones.
Nearly 55,000 electric customers were without power across the region on Thursday evening amid the storms, according to PowerOutage.us.
The severe weather threat is predicted to escalate on Friday afternoon as the storms shift from the Midwest to the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys.
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