Shawano County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Shawano County: 0.
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.

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

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.

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.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 16, 1997Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   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…

2. Jul 30, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms moved through Wisconsin in very warm and unstable air ahead of a cold front. Severe thunderstorm winds and tornadoes downed trees and power lines and damaged buildings across a large swath of central, north central and east central Wisconsin. Thousands of trees and power lines were downed by high winds from the storms. An 11 year old Boy Scout was killed and another was seriously injured when trees landed on their tent at Camp Napowan (Waushara co.).High winds pushed a house off its foundation and blew a boat and trailer into a neighbor's yard near Merrill (Lincoln co.). Some downed trees damaged or destroyed buildings or vehicles when they fell. A church steeple was…

3. May 17, 2017Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds downed at least two dozen trees, causing damage to eight houses on the north shore of Shawano Lake.

4. Aug 21, 2013Thunderstorm Wind$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm with estimated winds of 85 to 95 mph, caused damage to trees and two houses in Gresham. Both houses lost portions of the roof deck, in addition to several dozen trees on the property.

5. Jun 14, 2017Tornado$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An EF1 tornado formed and moved north-northeast on the west side of the city of Pulaski. The tornado ripped off a garage door and one side of the garage collapsed inward (DI 2, DOD 4). Another nearby garage door (on a different property) collapsed and one side was heavily damaged (DI 2, DOD 4). In addition, a barn's roof was collapsed (DI 1, DOD 5). Several dozen trees were uprooted in wet soil or heavily damaged (DI 27 and 28, DOD 2 and 3) in the path of the tornado.

6. Jul 20, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds downed or snapped numerous trees and downed power lines throughout Wittenburg. The Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School had about 75 feet of its rubber membrane roof and underlying foam insulation peeled from the west side of the gymnasium. Several large pine trees along the south side of the school were uprooted. A camper trailer was blown from its support pad and rolled about 40 feet before resting on its roof. Two of the three pools at the water treatment plant had portions of their plastic thermal covers blown off. Downed trees blocked State Highway 45 causing authorities to close the road for several hours. More than 140 homes were damaged, but damage to most…

7. Aug 28, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms developed ahead of a warm front that moved north across Wisconsin. The storms downed numerous trees and power lines. Dime size hail fell for 10 minutes one mile east of Pulaski (Brown co.).

8. Jul 14, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$35,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds downed trees at numerous locations across western Shawano County. The most concentrated damage was about 3 miles northwest of Bowler where estimated wind gusts of 85 to 95 mph from a microburst caused significant damage. A stand of pine trees 200 yards wide by 400 yards long was almost completely flattened with several trees snapped about 10 to 15 feet above the ground. A home and work shed were damaged by fallen trees and a truck was crushed. About a mile to the east a barn and outbuilding were flattened by the wind.

9. Jun 14, 2017Tornado$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado, west of Angelica, heavily damaged an old barn (DI 1, DOD 6) and partially tore the roof off an outbuilding (DI 1, DOD 2). Another old barn had most of its roof blown off (DI 1, DOD 5). A nearby home had roof damage (DI 2, DOD 2) and its garage door partially collapsed inward.

10. Aug 23, 2011Lightning$20,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A house in the Town of Maple Grove was struck by lightning, causing a fire that destroyed its second floor. Time and damage total are estimates.

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

109°FJul 12, 1936

All-time low

−39°FFeb 11, 1899

Warmest night

82°FJun 23, 1950

Coldest day

−20°FJan 19, 1994

Wettest day

4.25 inSep 11, 1900

Snowiest day

16.6 inJan 4, 1971

Hottest year

1931mean 48.0°F

Coldest year

2014mean 40.3°F

Wettest year

201950.79 in

Driest year

198919.81 in

Snowiest season

83.7 in1928-29

Station Shawano 2SSW (USC00477708), 806 ft elevation, 3.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 23, 2026; 99.8% 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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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 USC00477708.
• 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.