Official Updates & Announcements

Updated 9 a.m. July 28. NWS damage surveys now indicate EF-3 damage in the Appleton and Menasha areas, with estimated peak winds of 140 mph. The initial July 27 assessment was EF-2; the rating was raised after crews completed ground surveys.

The tornado developed about 2 miles west-northwest of Appleton around noon and tracked south into Fox Crossing and Menasha, damaging homes, businesses and trees. No fatalities have been reported, relatively few injuries, and no one is reported missing.

Ratings can still change as surveys are finalised.

Meteorologist Kevin Scharfenberg said radar confirmed a tornado contributing to significant damage in Menasha, Grand Chute, west of downtown Appleton and down to Doty Island.

The same system produced hail over 2 inches across the region, including a report of hail more than 4 inches in Shawano County.

The NWS is the only federal agency authorized to issue official EF-Scale ratings. Treat ratings from any other source as unconfirmed.

EF Rating	3-second gust
EF-0	65–85 mph
EF-1	86–110 mph
EF-2	111–135 mph
EF-3	136–165 mph
EF-4	166–200 mph
EF-5	Over 200 mph

Outagamie County Emergency Management maintains a dedicated page for this event, updated as conditions change. It is the primary source for Appleton, Grand Chute, Kaukauna and the rest of the county.

Currently covers: cell and internet status, road closures, power outage providers, shelter and cooling sites, church-run charging and donation points, garbage and debris collection, and damage reporting.

To report property damage in Outagamie County, call 211.

The page is available in Hmong and Spanish using the language selector at the top.

Winnebago County released a storm damage viewer built from drone images taken on 29 July 2026 — two days after the tornado, before most cleanup had started.

Open the storm damage viewer

It compares before-and-after imagery side by side, so you can show the condition of a property immediately after the storm against how it looked before.

Why this matters for your claim

The most common documentation problem after a tornado is that people cleaned up first and photographed second. That is a completely reasonable thing to do when your yard is full of debris and it is about to rain again — but it means the worst of the damage no longer exists by the time an adjuster arrives.

This imagery is dated, third-party, and official. That combination is far harder for an insurer to argue with than a homeowner's phone photo, and it is worth citing specifically if you are told your damage looks less severe than you have described.

Use it if:

• You tarped, cleared or started repairs before taking photographs
• Your phone was lost or damaged in the storm and your photos went with it
• You need to show roof damage and cannot safely get up there
• An adjuster's assessment does not match what you saw on 27 July

What it does and does not show

• Covers the Village of Fox Crossing, City of Menasha and City of Neenah. It does not cover Appleton or Grand Chute
• It shows damage at property scale — a missing roof section, a collapsed outbuilding, downed trees. It is not a substitute for close-up photographs of specific damage, cracks, or water intrusion
• It is a snapshot of 29 July only. Anything that happened after that date, including further collapse or rain damage, will not appear

Storm damage assessments are still ongoing. The county has said it will share verified assessment information with the community once that work is complete.

The imagery was flown by a partnership of Calumet County, the City of De Pere, East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Menasha Police Department, Outagamie County Land & Water Conservation, the Town of Grand Chute, and Winnebago County Land & Water Conservation. The viewer was built by Winnebago County GIS with East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and the Village of Fox Crossing.

Winnebago County maintains a Tornado Event Information and Resources page covering the communities south of the county line, including Menasha, Neenah, Fox Crossing and Oshkosh.

Outagamie County directs residents here for information on donations, volunteering and shelters.

World Relief Wisconsin supports refugees directly affected by the tornado. The county lists them under housing, basic needs and legal services, which in practice means one organisation that will take the whole situation rather than one piece of it.

920-231-3600 · WorldRelief.org/Wisconsin

What they do

• Needs assessment — someone sits down and works out what you actually need
• Case management — one person who knows your situation, instead of explaining it again at every office
• Referrals into the other help listed on this site
• Document recovery
• Housing assistance
• Basic needs assistance

Why document recovery matters here

If your household arrived as refugees, some of your papers cannot be reordered from a county clerk. Immigration documents, resettlement paperwork, records from another country — losing those to a tornado is a different and much harder problem than losing a birth certificate, and it is worth going to people who deal with it specifically.

This does not replace the ordinary routes. For a Wisconsin birth certificate, driver's licence or Social Security card, see "Replacing lost vital documents" under Insurance & Money — that is faster for anything the state itself issued.