April 11, 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak

Today marks the anniversary of the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak - not only one of the worst tornado events in U.S. history but also Indiana history.  In Indiana, 137 people were killed and nearly 2000 were injured as a series of violent tornadoes impacted the northern and central part of the state.

Although tornado records are more limited farther back in time, there are some data available for Indiana tornadoes going back approximately 200 years.  During that time, few events have even come close to competing with the 1965 outbreak in terms of fatalities, number of killer tornadoes and number of violent tornadoes.  The deadliest tornado outbreaks in Indiana history are as follows:

1.  April 11, 1965:  137

2.  March 18, 1925:  75 (actual number may be slightly higher)

3.  April 3, 1974:  47

# of killer tornadoes:

1.  April 3, 1974:  8
2.  April 11, 1965:  7
3.  June 30, 1877;  June 14, 1880;  April 17, 1922:  4


# of violent tornadoes (F4 or greater):

1.  April 3, 1974:  9
2.  April 11, 1965:  8
3.  June 2, 1990:  5


To put the April 11, 1965 Indiana death toll in perspective, more people were killed in less than 4 hours than in the entire 40 year period prior to that.  The outbreak is also responsible for slightly more than half of our tornado deaths from 1950-2012.

In all, ten tornadoes were confirmed in Indiana.  The first tornado touched down around 5:45 PM in Starke county.  It moved from 3 miles southwest of Hamlet, passed across Koontz Lake and ended about 5 miles south of Elkhart.  Numerous homes and cottages were destroyed.

The second tornado touched down in St. Joseph county about 5 miles southwest of Wakarusa.  The tornado developed a double funnel structure as it crossed US 33 between Elkhart and Goshen.  Numerous deaths occurred at the Midway Trailer Court as many trailers were destroyed.  Additional deaths occurred in the Middlebury area as homes were leveled and swept away.  Elkhart Truth reporter Paul Huffman took a series of photographs, unknowingly capturing what would become the iconic image of this outbreak (the double funnel) and perhaps one of the most spectacular tornado photographs ever taken.  Huffman was standing in the shoulder of US 33 when the famous picture was shot.






Click For Larger Image




The third tornado affected Porter and La Porte counties, moving from Morgan Township to just beyond South Center.  Homes were heavily damaged southwest of Wanatah.  Other homes and barns were destroyed south of Kingsford Heights. 

The fourth tornado touched down southeast of Goshen in Elkhart county and ended near Brighton.  Most of the deaths occurred in the Rainbow Lake and Shore areas, where intensity was near F5.

The fifth tornado touched down in northwest Steuben county before moving into Michigan.  All of the deaths and most of the damage occurred in Michigan.

The sixth tornado, the first of the day to impact central Indiana, occurred in Tippecanoe and Clinton counties.  This tornado is often listed as touching down southeast of Lafayette but tornado damage may have started as far west as Odell.  A few homes were leveled at Mulberry and Moran with the worst damage occurring in Clinton county.

The seventh tornado touched down south of South Bend, passing through parts of St. Joseph, Elkhart and LaGrange counties.  Many people were killed at Dunlap as the Sunnyside and Kingston Heights housing developments were devastated.

The eighth tornado touched down in Montgomery county southeast of Crawfordsville.  This tornado affected parts of three counties - Montgomery, Boone and Hamilton.  The funnel cut a mile wide swath north of Lebanon, destroying dozens of homes and killing several people.  Additional deaths occurred around Sheridan before the tornado dissipated south of Arcadia.

The ninth tornado of the day touched down just southwest of Russiaville, heavily damaging much of that town.  Near Alto and Kokomo, the funnel widened to about 1 mile and destroyed dozens of homes.   Additional homes were leveled along the track before the tornado finally dissipated in Grant county north of Arcana.   


The tenth and final tornado to impact Indiana touched down in Blackford county near the town of Roll.  Heavy damage occurred in Wells county near Keystone and near Linn Grove in Adams county.  The tornado then moved into Ohio.

Map of Tornado Tracks



Tornado narratives and pre-1950 data obtained from:
Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 (Environmental Films, 1993).

























March 28, 1920 - The Original Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak

Today marks the anniversary of a significant Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, but perhaps not the one you may think.  On March 28, 1920, at least 7 tornadoes touched down in Indiana as part of a major tornado outbreak.

The first tornado touched down west of Leroy in Lake county around 3 PM before passing into Porter county and ending near Beatrice.  One person was killed and another was injured.

Around 3:15 PM, a second tornado touched down south of Mishawaka and passed northwest of Elkhart before heading into Michigan.  Fortunately, no fatalities occurred in this storm but several people were injured.

The third tornado touched down at 4:30 PM in Steuben county near the town of Orland, unroofing businesses and homes there.  The tornado moved NNE into Michigan.

A new tornado touched down at 5:15 PM in Wells county near Uniondale.  Many farms and other buildings were leveled along the path across Wells and Allen counties.  The tornado then crossed into Ohio.  In all, 23 people were killed with 13 of the deaths occurring in Indiana.

Around 6 PM, another tornado touched down NNW of Portland in Jay county.  Extreme damage (possibly F5) occurred near the towns of Geneva and Ceylon before the tornado passed into Ohio.  17 people died with 14 of them occurring in Indiana.

A sixth tornado touched down at 7:30 PM south of Union City in Randolph county before moving into Ohio.  5 people were killed but it appears that all of the deaths occurred in Ohio.

The final tornado reached the ground in Wayne county at 8:00 PM.  This tornado originated near Fountain City and moved through Wayne and Randolph counties before passing into Ohio.  No deaths occurred in Indiana.


Source:

Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 (Environmental Films, 1993).

October 24, 2001 Tornado Outbreak

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the October 24, 2001 tornado outbreak.  This event produced 9 tornadoes in the state, killing 2 and injuring 19.

The first tornado, rated EF0, touched down in northern Warren county at 2:46 PM local time.  It was tracked by storm spotters and was on the ground for approximately one tenth of a mile and caused no damage.

The first in a series of several tornadoes to strike the northern part of the state struck La Porte county around 3:15 PM.  This twister sliced across the county from southwest to northeast and was up to a mile wide.  One woman was killed when her mobile home was destroyed. 

The next tornado touched down just southwest of Crumstown in St. Joseph county and moved northeast.  The most significant damage was across Crumstown, where EF3 damage with a path width up to 3/4 mile occurred. The tornado then moved to near the Michiana Regional Airport and across the Indiana Toll Road.  Two men were injured northwest of South Bend. One man later died from his injuries. 

Another tornado, an EF2 up to three quarters of a mile wide, touched down southeast of Mishawaka.  A separate EF1 tornado touched down about 4 miles northwest of Osceola.

An EF1 tornado touched down in extreme southeastern Marshall county and moved northeast across Kosciusko county and into Noble county where the tornado dissipated near Rome City.  The worst damage was north of Warsaw where 14 people were hurt at a factory when a wall collapsed.

The last tornado to strike northern Indiana touched down in Noble county east of Kendallville.  It produced some damage to homes and warehouses in and near the Kendallville East Industrial park.  The tornado then moved northeast into Dekalb county where EF2 damage occurred around Fairfield Center with significant damage to homes. Then tornado moved southeast of Ashley and then moved into Steuben county doing damage to a barn before lifting north of Steubenville.

Two other tornadoes hit southern Indiana.  An EF0 briefly touched down in Petersburg.  Two houses were unroofed and their windows were blown out.  Two car windshields were shattered by blowing debris.  Metal siding was deposited in power lines. The walls of two businesses were knocked down or cracked. 

The last tornado touched down at 5:29 PM.  It was an EF1 which struck northeast of Williams in Lawrence county, blowing off the roofs of 2 barns and a house.

NWS Confirms Tornado In Elkhart County

The NWS in North Webster has confirmed that an EF0 tornado touched down in Elkhart county in the early afternoon hours of September 27.  Survey details are provided below.  For more information, including damage photographs, see this page


PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTHERN INDIANA
438 PM EDT TUE SEP 27 2011   


..EF0 TORNADO CONFIRMED IN ELKHART COUNTY

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONFIRMED AN EF0 TORNADO ON THE EAST
SIDE OF NAPPANEE. THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES
EAST OF DOWNTOWN...BETWEEN COUNTY ROADS 7 AND 9 ALONG US 6. MINOR
ROOF AND TREE DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED. SEVERAL WITNESSES SAW ROTATING
DEBRIS IN THE AIR WITH AN AUDIBLE LOUD ROAR. THE TORNADO WAS RAIN
WRAPPED AND TRAVELED NORTH APPROXIMATELY ONE HALF MILE SKIPPING
ALONG THE PATH. THE MOST INTENSE DAMAGE WAS ALONG US 6.

PATH LENGTH    0.58 MILES
PATH WIDTH     30 YARDS
RATING         EF0 WINDS ESTIMATED 70-75 MPH  

Top 10 Tornadoes Since 1950

#3 - April 11, 1965 South Bend to Shipshewana Tornado


This was the second tornado to hit Dunlap, Indiana on that fateful day. It killed 36 people, injured about 300 and was on the ground for 37 miles. There has been some debate about whether this was actually an F5, but the official rating is F4.

Top 10 Tornadoes Since 1950

#9 - April 11, 1965 Dunlap Tornado (1st)


This F4 twister killed 14 and injured about 200. It was on the ground for over 20 miles and did serious damage to Dunlap, including the Midway Trailer Park. This was the infamous "double funnel" that was captured on camera by Paul Huffman of the Elkhart Truth.

A Look At Tornadoes Which Have Crossed Into Indiana

Since 1950, Indiana has been struck by nearly 1300 tornadoes.  A very high number - but not all - have occurred entirely within the state boundaries.  The focus of this post is those tornadoes that started in a neighboring state before crossing into Indiana.

In the past 60 years, I found nearly two dozen tornadoes that started in Illinois, Kentucky or Michigan.  I have mapped them and provided a list below.  The text only indicates the last county to be affected in the preceding state and the first county in our state.  The usual caveats apply - namely, paths may be inexact and some tornadoes may not have actually been on the ground as they crossed the state line (since older tornadoes tended to be listed as one long path instead of several smaller ones).

There are a few interesting things in the data.  One, Knox county has been hit by a half dozen twisters passing through from Illinois.  Another noteworthy discovery is that June 2, 1990 is the only day that has had 4 tornadoes pass from Illinois into Indiana.  That day of course owns the largest tornado outbreak in state history.  Also, the tornado that struck the Evansville area on November 6, 2005 tracked from Kentucky into Indiana back into Kentucky and finally back into Indiana due to the shape of the border along the Ohio River.

Tomorrow I will post the tornadoes that started in Indiana before crossing into another state.

   

Biggest Summer Tornado Outbreaks Since 1950

Although tornadoes can and do occur here during Summer, they do not happen as frequently and tend to be weaker than those in Spring.  This is mainly due to the fact that temperature gradients are less intense during Summer and thus the jet stream tends to be weaker and farther north.  This lack of stronger winds aloft is detrimental to the production of strong tornadoes, but they can still occur when conditions come together just right.

I have scanned the tornado database back to 1950 in order to establish our biggest summertime tornado outbreaks.  Here are some of the biggest outbreaks between the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox (roughly June 21-September 22).


June 26, 1973:  10 tornadoes struck the state, 9 of which occurred in central/southern Indiana.  The strongest was a F2 near Bloomington.

July 30, 1992:  6 tornadoes occurred, including an F2 in Morgan county and a F3 in Johnson county.  The Johnson county tornado had a path length of about 7 miles and injured 25 people.

September 20, 2002:  6 tornadoes happened with 4 of them rated F2 or higher.  The highlight of this event was the long track F3 tornado that started near Ellettsville and ended near Hartford City in Blackford county.  This impressive tornado had a path length of 112 miles, injured over 100 people and caused more than $100 million damage.    For more on this event, click here

June 23, 2010:  6 tornadoes occurred in northern Indiana, mostly in Elkhart county.  These tornadoes were spawned from a quasi-linear convective system which moved across the area.

August 9, 1969:  5 tornadoes occurred, the most significant being an early morning F3 in Indianapolis which injured 6 people.

September 19, 1988:  5 weak tornadoes struck various parts of the state, injuring 3 people.

July 26, 2005:  5 tornadoes occurred, including a F2 in Cass and Miami counties.  Nobody was injured.

June 27, 2008:  5 brief EF0 tornadoes occurred, one of which injured 2 people in Morgan county.


Special mention:  On July 9, 1980, a F4 tornado struck Rush county, killing 2 people.  Although there was only one other tornado on this date (a weak F0 near Crawfordsville), this event is significant because it is the only known F4 tornado to hit Indiana during the summer.

Tornadoes Per 100 Square Miles Per County, 1950-2010

I used the NCDC Storm Events database and Severeplot 3.0 to construct this map. Since each county varies in size, we have to try to level the playing field.  To that end, I did some calculations to find the number of tornadoes per 100 square miles per county from 1950-2010.  Here is what I found:

Not surprisingly, population bias is pretty noticeable.  It's not a perfect relationship but there is a general tendency for higher populated counties to report more tornadoes which makes sense.  More people=greater chance of someone seeing it.

Here are the top 5 counties in terms of tornadoes per 100 square miles:

Marion - 10.35
Tippecanoe - 8.40
Vanderburgh - 7.67
Shelby - 7.03
Elkhart - 6.90


Here are counties ranked by population. Notice that 4 of the above listed counties appear in the top 8 (out of 92) in terms of population. Curiously, Shelby county ranks much farther down on this list.

1. Marion
2. Lake
3. Allen
4. Hamilton
5. St. Joseph
6. Elkhart
7. Vanderburgh
8. Tippecanoe
.
.
.
32. Shelby