Wausau

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Marathon County, the county that contains Wausau.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges in Marathon County, the county that contains Wausau.

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

The drought index is for Marathon County, the county that contains Wausau.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Oct 6, 2007Lightning$8.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a 321 megawatt power plant in the Wausau area, causing damage severe enough to keep it off-line until late 2007 or early 2008. In addition to the cost of repairs to the plant, the utility company will have to pay at least an addition $30 million to purchase power to replace the amount that would have been generated by the plant while repairs are made. The plant was equipted with a state-of-the-art lightning suppression system that was operational at the time of the strike.

2. Apr 17, 2026Tornado$8.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado developed about 3 miles west-southwest of Ringle, east of Kronenwetter near Martin and Creek Road, at about 4:46 PM CDT. The tornado moved northeast, crossing highway 29 and downing hundreds of trees. It then moved through neighborhoods along and near River Road from Shady Lane to north of Clubhouse Road. In this area, dozens of homes suffered significant roof damage, with failures of attached garages common. At least three homes in this area had complete removal of their roofs with failure of all external walls and several interior walls, consistent with EF-3 damage. Hundreds more trees were downed in this area, with many snapped near the base. Multiple sheds and…

3. Aug 23, 2008Lightning$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A lightning strike at 2:29 am CDT on August 23 generated a fire at the Gordon Aluminum Industries in Schofield. The fire destroyed a row of offices and generated enough heat to incapacitate nearby machinery. In addition to the fire damage at the plant, $300 million worth of unfinished aluminum had varying degrees of corrosion as a result of the smoke, ash, and water used to douse the flames.||The lightning strike rattled residences in the area. A blown gas main valve near the apparent source of the fire served to fuel the blaze.

4. Jun 22, 2002Flash Flood$1.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An east to west stationary front across central Wisconsin was the focus for the development of thunderstorms. Heavy rain occurred across that part of the state during the night of June 21-22 as thunderstorms trained over the area for several hours. Over 5 inches of rain fell during a 3 hour period across the affected areas. An unofficial gage near Biron (Wood co.) recorded 10.30 inches in 12 hours.A trailer park in Stratford (Marathon co.) had to be evacuated due to high water, and basements were flooded in some homes in central Wisconsin. Several bridges were out due to the flooding and roads were washed out in numerous locations. One township in Marathon county had 40 miles of…

5. Apr 18, 2002Tornado$1.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A warm front across Wisconsin lifted north during the afternoon and evening. Moist and very unstable air south of the front led to the development of severe thunderstorms. The storms produced 5 tornadoes, damaging straight line winds, large hail and some flooding.Brief tornado touchdowns in Lincoln county, Oneida county and Marathon county snapped numerous trees. Marathon county had hundreds of trees downed and numerous barns and farm sheds destroyed by a combination of straight line winds and a tornado that remained on the ground for 14 miles. Plows had to be used in Marathon county to clear trees from some of the roads.Other storms across central, north-central and east-central…

6. Sep 2, 2002Tornado$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms developed along a strong cold front that moved through Wisconsin during the evening. Some of the storms produced hail to golf ball size and winds as high as 60 mph. The high winds downed trees and power line, knocking out power to about 3,100 customers, mainly around Wausau (Marathon co.).Two tornadoes developed from the storms. The first tornado briefly touched down about 5 miles west of Athens (Marathon co.) and caused minimal damage. The second tornado passed north of Wausau and stayed on the ground for about 5 miles, destroying two barns, a garage and a shed. It also snapped hundreds of trees, heavily damaged 6 homes and caused minor damage to 25 others. At least…

7. Jul 16, 1997Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms affected much of northern, central and east-central Wisconsin during the afternoon and evening of July 16 with tornadoes, downburst winds and large hail. Millions of dollars in damage resulted from the biggest severe weather outbreak to affect the region in years.The storms began to develop early in the afternoon across north-central Wisconsin. Hail the size of baseballs fell in Minocqua (Oneida co.), damaging nearly 200 vehicles. As those storms moved southeast and weakened, a new supercell thunderstorm developed over Lincoln county. This new storm produced wind damage in Tomahawk and softball size hail northeast of Merrill. About 20 minutes later, a tornado…

8. Jun 12, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong microburst winds blew a roof off of an elementary school in Hatley (Marathon county) and deposited part of it on top of a nearby house. Pieces of sheet metal were left hanging in the branches of trees. The tops of pine trees were sheared off and large limbs were driven into the ground. Trees, power lines and a barn were all blown down, and wheat fields were flattened.

9. Oct 23, 2007High Wind, Marathon$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A wind gust of 64 mph was measured in Wausau. A power pole on Bridge Street was knocked down by the winds, causing 600 residents to lose power.

10. Aug 7, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$440,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Powerful straight-line winds downed 450 trees in the Edgar area, some of which fell on homes and vehicles. Significant property damage occurred.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

102°FJul 13, 1995

All-time low

−40°FJan 30, 1951

Warmest night

78°F3 times, most recently Jun 30, 2026

Coldest day

−20°FFeb 2, 1996

Wettest day

4.46 inJun 5, 1980

Snowiest day

23.4 inMar 15, 2026

Hottest year

1998mean 48.8°F

Coldest year

1950mean 39.6°F

Wettest year

201948.10 in

Driest year

197621.43 in

Snowiest season

100.3 in1995-96

Station Wausau Asos (USW00014897), 1,201 ft elevation, 2.6 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1941 to October 27, 2026; 99.9% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Marathon County.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USW00014897.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.