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Wisconsin: Risks & Trends

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Same standard as every other page on this site: every figure below is independently sourced, and figures that vary across sources, or measure genuinely different things, are flagged as such rather than collapsed into one number that looks more precise than the underlying data actually supports.

The Peshtigo Fire (1871): the deadliest wildfire in recorded U.S. history

MetricFigure
Date October 8, 1871
Verified deaths 1,152
Acres burned 1.2-1.5 million
National/world ranking Deadliest wildfire in recorded U.S. history

Why the true death toll is likely higher than the verified count

The fire destroyed town records for the affected area, and many victims lived on remote farmsteads or logging camps that were never formally documented in the first place, their settlements, and their bodies, were burned beyond identification. The 1,152 figure is the verified count; some historians believe the true toll was meaningfully higher, though it can’t be confirmed with surviving records.

The fire is believed to have started from a brush fire, possibly set by railroad workers clearing land, though no definitive cause was ever established. It struck the same night as the Great Chicago Fire, which killed far fewer people but received far more attention then and since.

The Barneveld tornado (1984): Wisconsin’s first F5 since 1958

MetricFigure
Date June 8, 1984
Peak rating F5
Deaths 13
Injuries 322
Damage (Wisconsin) ~$40 million
Context Part of a 46-tornado outbreak; Wisconsin's first F5 since the 1958 Chippewa Valley outbreak, which killed 27 people statewide including 19 in a single F5 near Colfax

What these two have in common

Separated by 113 years, the Peshtigo Fire and the Barneveld tornado both demonstrate that Wisconsin’s most severe weather events are genuinely rare but genuinely catastrophic when they occur, long quiet intervals punctuated by events far outside what residents typically expect from the state’s usual climate.

Sources