Severe Thunderstorm Warning Issued for South Central Wisconsin
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 18, 2026, 5 days ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Columbia, Dane, Dodge, and Jefferson counties until 6:45 PM CDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Severe Thunderstorm Warning
- Affected area
- South Central Wisconsin
- Issued
- August 18, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan WI
Storm notices can cover different combinations of wind, hail, lightning, and rainfall. Use the original notice for the hazards and boundaries attached to this specific record.
Record status: historical. It was issued 5 days ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in South Central Wisconsin.
Alert Details
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued by the National Weather Service Milwaukee/Sullivan WI on August 18, 2026, at 5:42 PM CDT. The alert is effective from 5:42 PM CDT until 6:45 PM CDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Southeastern Columbia County, Dane County, Northwestern Jefferson County, and Southwestern Dodge County in south central and southeastern Wisconsin. Impacted locations include Madison, Sun Prairie, Fitchburg, Watertown, Middleton, Beaver Dam, Stoughton, Waunakee, Verona, Oregon, McFarland, Monona, Windsor, Lake Mills, Columbus, Marshall, Waterloo, Juneau, Deforest, and Cottage Grove, as well as the Wisconsin State Capitol.
What You Should Do
Remain alert for a possible tornado. If a tornado is spotted, go at once into the basement or a small central room in a sturdy structure. Move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
Expected Conditions
At 5:41 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line from Rio to Deforest to near Cross Plains, moving southeast at 35 mph. Hazards include 60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail (0.75 inch), with possible tornadoes. Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from 5:42 PM CDT to 6:45 PM CDT on August 18, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,275 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 18, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.