DISCUSSION: As we look back to April 11th, 1965, we arrive at a very scary day in United States weather history. Back on that mid-April day in 1965, severe thunderstorms in the Upper Midwest spawned 47 tornadoes, killing 271 people. This outbreak ended up being the third deadliest on record, behind the Super Outbreak of 4/3/1974, and the outbreak that included the Tri-State Tornado of 3/18/1925. Attached below is more insight into this particular severe weather event courtesy of the Northern Indiana Weather Forecast Office located in Syracuse, Indiana.
"The Palm Sunday Tornado outbreak occurred on April 11-12, 1965, across the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. 47 Tornadoes (15 significant, 17 violent, and 21 killers), wrecked havoc upon the land. It is the third deadliest tornado outbreak on record with 261 deaths, trailing the Super Outbreak which killed 315, and the March 18, 1925 outbreak which spawned the infamous Tri-State Tornado which killed 747 people.
The April 11-12th 1965 Tornado outbreak across the upper Midwest and Great Lakes marked a watershed moment in weather history. Due to the tragic loss of life and catastrophic damage that was observed in a following National Weather Service Storm Survey, a list of recommendations was formulated and eventually instituted. Many of these were ground breaking and well ahead of there time yet easily adapted based on the emergence of the telecommunications and computing age. To learn more about this severe weather event, be sure to click here!
To learn more about other past historic weather events from around the world, be sure to click here!
©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz