Wisconsin Has Seen a Higher Than Average Number of Tornadoes so Far This Year

Wednesday, July 15th, 2026 -- 11:01 AM

(Abigail Bottar, Harvest Public Media) The U.S. has had a busy tornado season so far, and the majority of the storms are blasting through the Midwest, east of what’s traditionally thought of as Tornado Alley.

According to Abigail Bottar with Harvest Public Media, Wisconsin has seen a higher than average number of tornadoes so far this year, according to data from the National Weather Service.

“It’s been an active tornado year so far across Wisconsin with 39 documented tornadoes, which ties it with (2025) for the sixth most in an entire year since 1950,” the NWS wrote in an update released Monday.

The NWS says the average number of tornadoes for Wisconsin in a calendar year is 23. In recent years, the state has seen tornado totals around double that number. Historically, tornadoes have most frequently touched down in the Great Plains, hitting states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, but research has found since 1979 that pattern has been shifting.

“Tornadoes have been happening with less frequency in the Great Plains over the last 40 years,” said Victor Gensini, a professor and director at Northern Illinois University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Convective Storms. “And they’ve been having greater frequency in places like Illinois and Indiana and Tennessee and portions of the Mid-South and the Midwest.”

NWS data shows some of the worst tornado years for Wisconsin have been recorded in just the past two decades. And the Wisconsin State Climatology Office’s June 2026 Climate Summary found storm warnings were common this year.

“With 183 severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued in the state (nearly double the monthly average), it was Wisconsin’s most active June since 2008,” the summary states. And, as of July, Wisconsin has already tied with last year’s total number, according to NWS data.

Illinois leads the nation with 178 tornadoes so far, according to the National Weather Service. That’s more than three times the typical number of tornadoes, 54 on average, Illinois experiences annually.

Missouri also has far outnumbered the state’s average of 52 tornadoes in recent years. And Indiana broke the record for most tornadoes in the state this year with 77 so far, according to the National Weather Service.

The state averages 22 tornadoes annually. In Iowa, there have been 68 tornadoes this year, while the state averages 50. The growing number of tornadoes in the Midwest is a trend Gensini has been studying for nearly a decade.

He published groundbreaking research in 2018 first showing that tornadoes are shifting east. “If the last eight years have shown us anything since that paper was published, it’s that these trends are continuing,” he said.

While 2026 isn’t the worst year on record for Wisconsin tornadoes, the impact and severity of the twisters are notable. The NWS has recorded three EF3 tornadoes statewide so far. The first hit on April 14, near Union Center in southern Wisconsin.

The second came on April 17, in Buffalo County near the Minnesota border, and the third hit the same day near Ringle, in central Wisconsin. There have been a number of smaller EF2, EF1 and EF0 tornadoes this year, according to the data.

In 2025, there were no EF3 tornadoes in Wisconsin, according to NWS data. There were four EF2 tornadoes, and multiple smaller twisters.

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