A punishing stretch of April storms has already dropped 2.5-inch hailstones on western Wisconsin, sent 70 mph wind gusts tearing across Grant County, and spawned confirmed tornadoes in Iowa, all within counties that sit along or directly adjacent to Interstates 35, 29, and 94. For the millions of commuters and thousands of freight haulers who depend on those corridors daily, the pattern shows no clear sign of letting up.
The Storm Prediction Center’s Tornado Watch 133 warned of “scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph possible” across the upper Midwest, while the National Weather Service office in La Crosse, Wisconsin, flagged “large hail of 2 inches” and “damaging winds of 60 to 70 mph” for portions of southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa, and Wisconsin. Four separate severe-weather events have been documented by three NWS field offices in just the first 18 days of April 2026, a pace that points to a persistent storm pattern rather than a one-off outbreak.
What forecasters have confirmed
The hardest numbers come from NWS storm reports filed after each event. On April 14, the La Crosse office documented a 2.50-inch hailstone in Jackson County, Wisconsin, and a measured 70 mph thunderstorm wind gust in Grant County. Both readings were recorded by trained spotters or instrumented stations, making them observational data rather than model estimates.
Earlier that month, the Quad Cities forecast office cataloged a separate severe weather event on April 2 that included large hail reports in Washington County along with multiple tornado entries confirmed by NWS ground surveys. A third event spanning April 14 through 15 prompted the Detroit/Pontiac office to reference SPC wind and hail outlook graphics, Mesoscale Discussions, and Tornado Watch 113 in its own summary. By April 17, the Quad Cities office published yet another event review with direct links to SPC nationwide storm reports…