Tornado passed through southern Eau Claire County overnight

Storms that churned through Wisconsin’s skies Monday evening included a tornado, which passed through southern Eau Claire County.

The tornado touched down northeast of Mondovi in Buffalo County, said Brennan Dettmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Twin Cities office.

Passing north of Eleva, it later moved near Foster, Dettmann said. Its path through southern Eau Claire County ended east of Augusta.

Crews of NWS workers and local law enforcement were assessing damage from the tornado Tuesday.

Cars, sheds and farm buildings were damaged during the tornado, said Tyler Esh, the Eau Claire County emergency manager. He said falling trees and branches were the main cause of damage and that no injuries have been reported.

Dettmann said the tornado’s strength hasn’t been determined yet.

“Sometimes we can have a situation where a tornado touches down briefly, lifts and then touches down in a different location just downstream,” the meteorologist said, explaining that crews are trying to determine that today, as well.

A video posted by FOX Weather on Facebook shows a funnel cloud forming near Augusta yesterday.

Storms affect western, northeastern Wisconsin

Mike Kurz, an NWS meteorologist in the La Crosse office, said “a pretty long line of storms” moved through west-central Wisconsin on Monday night.

He said the storms produced “marginally severe hail,” but his office hasn’t received many reports of hail damage.

Hailstones in northern Iowa reached golf ball sizes, Kurz said. But he said hail in Wisconsin was smaller, “mainly around quarter-sized.”

In northeastern Wisconsin, crews on Tuesday morning were assessing wind damage in Shawano County, said Phil Kurimski, an NWS meteorologist in the Green Bay office.

He said they were still determining whether that wind was from a tornado — the NWS issued several tornado warnings last night for northeastern Wisconsin.