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50th Anniversary 1965 Palm Sunday tornadoes


Indystorm

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As we approach the 50th anniversary of this memorable event I thought I'd create a topic so that we can keep everything in one place.  The Elkhart Truth newspaper has an excellent and extensive section on Sunday March 29 dealing with the event entitled "Forever Changed."  Having lived in Dunlap IN from 2007 to 2014 I can assure you that the memories are still fresh and vivid among those affected. 

Paul Huffman, who took the iconic photo of the twin tornadoes, died just this past November 2014.  It was a privilege to have known him.

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I know that, in general, some of the older tornado ratings are questionable - some may have been rated too high - but I really don't feel like this is a case where that applies.  The damage with many of these was just devastating and rather than downgrades, you could probably make an easier case that 2 or 3 of these could've been F5 (with the usual caveat that you can only tell so much from photographs).   And actually, Grazulis did rate some of them F5.

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A large tornado, rated F4 by Ted Fujita (I think) tracked through north Toledo, killing 18 people. Damage path was 5.6 miles. Headlines from the Toledo Blade: "Tornadoes Kill 13 in City, 34 in Area" "Hundreds Hurt, Homeless" "Guard Units Called Out" "Death Toll 210 in 5 States"

 

Useful plots from April 11, 1965.

Skew-T plot for Toledo, using NCEP reanalysis

http://www.greatlakes.salsite.com/SevereStorms/ToledoTornadoes/12APR1965_00Z_415_835_skewT_NCEP.png

 

Lifted Index, sfc-500mb shear, 3km SRH,  from NCEP reanalysis. LI of -4 to -6, shear of 70-80 kt

http://www.greatlakes.salsite.com/SevereStorms/ToledoTornadoes/12APR1965_00Z_LIFT_3kmH_sfc_500_shear_N.png

 

observed sounding from KDAY (Dayton OH)

http://www.greatlakes.salsite.com/SevereStorms/Other_radar_images/Apr_12_1965_00z_DAY_sounding.gif

 

storm reports from April 11 1965 (NW Ohio and SE Michigan)

http://www.greatlakes.salsite.com/SevereStorms/Apr_11_1965_storm_reports.png

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Was able to use Google maps to locate the approximate location where Paul Huffman took the double tornado photograph along US-33.  The area has changed a lot in 50 years, with a Lowe's and other businesses, changes with the road width and power poles, etc. and yet there's something about it that makes it seem strangely familiar.

 

post-14-0-71921300-1427770107.png

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New website strikes again. I really hope they allow local WFOs the functionality to do post event and historical write ups again. A lot of these offices had some really nice stories and reviews.

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Was able to use Google maps to locate the approximate location where Paul Huffman took the double tornado photograph along US-33.  The area has changed a lot in 50 years, with a Lowe's and other businesses, changes with the road width and power poles, etc. and yet there's something about it that makes it seem strangely familiar.

 

 

attachicon.gifdunlap.png

 

The Arab Pest Control sign was still there until a few years ago. I actually stopped at that location on my way to advanced spotter training in Goshen a few years ago. Just got out of my car and looked. It DID seem strangely familiar.

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New website strikes again. I really hope they allow local WFOs the functionality to do post event and historical write ups again. A lot of these offices had some really nice stories and reviews.

 

Ugh, this sucks. I'm going to miss the news archives, storm write-ups, etc. IND still has a page on their site for recent and historical storms http://www.weather.gov/ind/archive , but I can't anything on LOT's site anymore. All gone. :thumbsdown:  :( 

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Ugh, this sucks. I'm going to miss the news archives, storm write-ups, etc. IND still has a page on their site for recent and historical storms http://www.weather.gov/ind/archive , but I can't anything on LOT's site anymore. All gone. :thumbsdown::(

We migrated our most significant events writeups to a past events page before the website transition and the page is there now but not functional. Here's the link to the page: http://www.weather.gov/lot/science#. Hoping it's fully functional sometime soon. Apologies for the terrible website :(

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We migrated our most significant events writeups to a past events page before the website transition and the page is there now but not functional. Here's the link to the page: http://www.weather.gov/lot/science#. Hoping it's fully functional sometime soon. Apologies for the terrible website :(

 

Thanks RC. No need to apologize...not your fault.

 

I know you and others worked hard on those great write-ups. It'd be a shame if they disappeared forever. At least that sounds like that's not the case...  

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Thanks RC. No need to apologize...not your fault.

I know you and others worked hard on those great write-ups. It'd be a shame if they disappeared forever. At least that sounds like that's not the case...

Yeah, not too crazy about the new layout, but I do like the better mobile functionality. Going to take a long time for me to find and rebookmark everything.

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The new website changes for NWS central region are absolutely terrible. DTX had an all inclusive page where you could find pretty much everything, that is gone now.

I am in agreement, but am working my way around to discover exactly what's where. Thanks to those who have posted web page links and comments to this topic about the Palm Sunday tornado episode.

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The Arab Pest Control sign was still there until a few years ago. I actually stopped at that location on my way to advanced spotter training in Goshen a few years ago. Just got out of my car and looked. It DID seem strangely familiar.

Probably some tornado junkie bought the Arab Pest Control sign.

 

Part of what made that photo so renowned and compelling, I think, is not only the extraordinary tornado structure itself, but how it's framed: the quotidian advertising sign; the white house (could be right out of a John Cougar Melloncamp song) and the big tree next to it, together suggesting a certain placidity -- direly threatened; the road and the railroad trailing away from the POV and neatly bisecting the gap between the funnels. And I've always thought that tornadoes (generally) look even more ominous in black and white than in color.

 

Interesting OP of how the photo site looks now, too. Thanks for posting that.

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Here in northern Indiana we will be live tweeting the events of that day to commemorate the 50th anniversary. We have over 100 tweets scheduled following a detailed timeline of the events of the day across our area. You can follow along @NWSIWX and at the hashtag #PalmSunday50

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Good research Andy, particularly your comparison of the 500mb jet streaks with the 4/27/11 event. As a native Hoosier who's lived in Indiana all my life the Palm Sunday tornadoes, 4/3/74, and 6/2/90 have always been defining for me.

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Hey folks. Wee bit late on this one, but I updated my article for the 50th anniversary, adding a bunch of new photos and some additional information. I'd like to rewrite the whole thing at some point since it was one of the first posts I made and wasn't very well done, but at least there are lots of pictures!

 

https://stormstalker.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/1965-palm-sunday/

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Hey folks. Wee bit late on this one, but I updated my article for the 50th anniversary, adding a bunch of new photos and some additional information. I'd like to rewrite the whole thing at some point since it was one of the first posts I made and wasn't very well done, but at least there are lots of pictures!

 

https://stormstalker.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/1965-palm-sunday/

 

That damage from the second Dunlap tornado is extreme. Excellent pictures/update.

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Thanks. That's my pick as probably the most intense tornado of the outbreak. Quite honestly I don't know how it was downgraded, but that's a whole thing that we won't get into here. Several of the others - Strongsville, Coldwater Lake #1, Toledo, Greentown, Sheridan, Rainbow Lake - produced some extremely intense damage as well. I was actually surprised at how intense some of the damage was from lesser-known tornadoes like Berne, IN and Williams Bay, WI as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
On Saturday, May 02, 2015 at 0:45 AM, andyhb said:

I missed this somehow.  Incredible pic. Reminds me a bit of this one south of Chicago on June 7, 2008, but it was nothing compared to the 1965 tornado.

 

amy.jpg

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