A powerful tornado that ripped through the Wisconsin cities of Menasha and Appleton on Monday has been given a preliminary EF3 rating by the National Weather Service.

(MORE: How tornadoes are rated)

The twister spun out of severe thunderstorms that moved through the upper Midwest and Great Lakes, dropping hail as large as grapefruit in some areas.

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With peak winds estimated at 140 mph, the tornado heavily damaged homes and businesses in both towns, with the most severe damage being reported near the US 10/Highway 441 on the north side of Menasha. The tornado traveled over 12 miles through the Fox Cities region for 26 minutes, ending over Lake Winnebago.

The entire town of Appleton lost power, and by early Tuesday morning, more than 47,000 customers across the state were still without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.

(MORE: Severe storms target Chicago, Great Lakes Monday, mid-Atlantic Tuesday)

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Wisconsin impacts

Video from the area showed intense winds whipping up waves from Lake Winnebago.

Miraculously, no deaths were reported, despite widespread damage that led to disaster declarations in Outagamie and Winnebago counties, homes to the cities of Appleton and Menasha, respectively. The fact that it struck around midday, when many people are at work and not at home, may have helped keep those numbers down.

Weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman says this is the first EF3 or stronger tornado in either Outagamie or Winnebago Counties since April 27, 1984.

One of Monday's most surprising reports came from Gresham, Wisconsin, where hailstones measuring more than 4 inches in diameter (about the size of a grapefruit) were reported. According to the National Weather Service, it's only the sixth time since 1950 that hail this large has been documented in Wisconsin.

Elsewhere in Wisconsin, winds downed trees and snapped power poles near Eagle River in the state's Northwoods near the border with Upper Michigan.

Illinois impacts

Across Wisconsin and Illinois, outages hovered around 250,000 Tuesday morning.

Parts of the Chicago metro area were simultaneously under tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings as a powerful clusters of severe storms moved south. Spotters reported 2-inch hail, 70 mph wind gusts and damage.

A tornado was sighted by a spotter in Orland Park, a southside Chicago suburb, around 12:45 p.m.

Survey teams from the National Weather Service's Chicago office have a lot to survey, says Erdman, including five total areas of tornado damage in northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana.

In Frankfort, Illinois, the NWS estimated a 90-mph-wind gust toppled a wall at a public works facility, highlighting just how destructive these storms were.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.