1954-05-30 Madison County Nebraska tornado

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Does anyone have information and photos about the Madison County, Nebraska tornado of May 30, 1954. All I could find out was from a noaa wevent~storms site. Per that site it was an F4 tornado that killed 6 and injured 23, was 167 yards wide and 24 miles long. That is the first tornado that I remember. It started just north northeast of Lindsay, Nebraska, close to the farm where I grew up, and continued to just west northwest of Madison, Nebraska. I was only 9 years old at the time, but I remember how the sky turned black that evening, and when the power went out. The next day my parents drove us kids thru the tornado damaged area. I'll never forget those leveled farm places.

 

[Mark Blue]

I found this brief reference to the event you mentioned Lonnie:

http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/netorn.htm#M

I happened on this site when trying to find information about the first tornado I saw when I was 5 years old in Kearney County Nebraska that hit my grandparents farm 5 miles south of Minden.

I wonder if this gentleman couldn't help you as it seems that he has a knack for digging up history on old storms:

http://bangladeshtornadoes.org/

I'll keep looking around to see what I can find. Tim V. is pretty good at this type of research as well.

You can also search the NCDC site where I found this link for you, but it's about the same information as above:

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent~ShowEvent~92475

This is the page you initiate the search from on the NCDC website:

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent~Storms

 

[Lonnie Kopecky]

05/30/1954: Madison county, NE tornado

Thanks Mark, some of these sites I have used to research this tornado, Ill check out the other ones you mentioned. I've also talked to David Hoadley, he suggested checking out Tom Grazulis's book "Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991". Per that site I learned the Madison county tornado was even worse than I remember, was 38 miles long, and damaged 30 farms. The farm where I grew up was about 3 miles south of the first 5 miles or so of the tornado's path. I plan on driving up to Norfolk (NE) one of these days to go thru the newspaper accounts of the event that are supposed to be stored at the public library. BUT, there is something else I would like to learn about this event, just what was the weather system that caused this tornado, that may be much more difficult this many years later.

 

[Ryan Pfannkuch]

Hi Lonnie, sorry it took me a few days to respond to your message, but figured I'd post my reply here in the public forum for others to see if interested.

As far as examining the weather system that spawned the 5-30-54 tornado, one of the better sources that has not been brought up by previous posters is the NOAA U.S. Daily Weather Maps page:

http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/dwm/data_rescue_daily_weather_maps.html

By plugging both 5-30-54 and 5-31-54 into the drop down menu, we start to get a sense of the weather setup. A surface analysis and 500 mb analysis is depicted for each date, among other maps.

Unfortunately, the main 5-30-54 surface analysis (large image) has a time stamp of 1230 AM CST, so this was quite a few hours before the tornado. It does however show a surface high pressure axis centered over the Ohio Valley, with southerly return flow starting to bring moisture back into the Plains.

Jumping ahead to the 5-31-54 maps, things get a lot more interesting. For one, the 500mb analysis depicts a classic mid-level trough approaching the Central Plains. A comparison of the surface maps in the upper left corner and main large map reveal features at both 1230pm CST on the 30th, and 1230 AM CST on the 31st, respectively. The earlier (upper left) image shows a warm front lifting northward into Nebraska out of Kansas. The larger image from 130 AM on the 31st, although it is a few hours after the tornado occurred, depicts a cold front slicing into eastern Nebraska with a warm front/stationary front draped across east central NE into northwest IA. Note the ob at Omaha, with southerly winds and a dewpoint of 66, while at Sioux City, a thunderstorm was reported.

Clearly, a lot of rapid changes took place in the 24 hour-period examined for these 2 dates on the map archive. All in all, it appeared to be a fairly classic severe weather situation for late May, with a rapid return of low level moisture ahead of a developing mid-level trough over the western U.S.

I hope this web source and brief explanations of the maps help piece together the meteorology of the 5-30-54 tornado event for you.

 

[GPhillips]

Using Tim V's Digital Atmosphere and his Surface Archives DVD, I produced the map linked below for 0000Z May 31st 1954.

http://members.cox.net/geophi/May30_1954_1800_CST.gif

 

[Lonnie Kopecky]

05/30/1954: Madison county, NE tornado

Thanks Ryan Phannkuch, GPhillips. This is great information. Thanks for the info about the weather history sites. I'm sure I'll be using them more to learn about other tornado events that have happened around me since that first one I remember. As I am now learning more about that 1954 tornado that hit near home I am wondering if other tornadoes were produced by that same weather event, you folks have provided me some tools to further research this. It may be a few weeks before I get up to Norfolk (NE) to look at the newspaper accounts of the Madison county tornado, when I do I will report my findings. I've got some time before next year's tornado season to research past tornadoes, right?

 

[Bobby Prentice]

"Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 by Thomas P. Grazulis" entry

MAY 30, 1954, 2000CST 6 Killed, 23 Injured, 400 yards wide, 38 Mile path length, F4
PLATTE/MADISON/STANTON/WAYNE Counties, Nebraska
Moved NE from NE of St. Bernard, passing SE of Newman Grove, 5m SE of Norfolk, to 2m E of Hoskins. There were deaths on three of the 30 farms that were damaged. Three farms were completely leveled. The bodies of some victims were found in trees. $450,000 (damage).

There was another F2 tornado in Todd County, Minnesota at 1745CST on this day, but Grazulis's book didn't have much information on it.

 

[joel ewing]

1954 MADISON COUNTY NEBRASKA TORNADO

Does anyone have information and photos about the Madison County, Nebraska tornado of May 30, 1954. All I could find out was from a noaa wevent~storms site. Per that site it was an F4 tornado that killed 6 and injured 23, was 167 yards wide and 24 miles long. That is the first tornado that I remember. It started just north northeast of Lindsay, Nebraska, close to the farm where I grew up, and continued to just west northwest of Madison, Nebraska. I was only 9 years old at the time, but I remember how the sky turned black that evening, and when the power went out. The next day my parents drove us kids thru the tornado damaged area. I'll never forget those leveled farm places.

Lonnie, I just today surfed into S.T. and found this post of yours from two years ago. I've NEVER seen or heard anything about this particular event...other than what I'll relay here now.
First off...I was born in Dec. of '54 in Lincoln, Nebr.....just several months after this event. My late parents grew up in Norfolk (Madison Co.) Nebr. and Albion (Boone Co. Nebr.). Interestingly, I was baptized in the Methodist church in Norfolk in '55....and although being raised in Arizona...I spent a TON of time on the family farms in Boone Co. and in Norfolk. The one thing about this event that I heard repeatedly growing up from my late aunt on the farm in Albion, is that there was rumored to be several people who had their lungs packed full of corn seed as the tornado hit their locations. What my aunt told me, and I cannot imagine it being true....but supposedly these people with their lungs filled with corn seed...well, back then there wasn't the kind of medicine we have now...and due to the warmth of the body and the moisture within the lungs...some of those seeds germinated within their lungs and eventually killed these folks due to slow suffocation. Now, it sure does sound to me like an old wive's tale....but perhaps what could be more likely is that seeds blown into the lungs could result in germs and molds that could eventually take someone's life. My aunt told me this when I was a teen....and then several decades later I asked her about it again...and she told the exact same story. Interesting....to say the least!

 

[joel ewing]

Thanks Mark, some of these sites I have used to research this tornado, Ill check out the other ones you mentioned. I've also talked to David Hoadley, he suggested checking out Tom Grazulis's book "Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991". Per that site I learned the Madison county tornado was even worse than I remember, was 38 miles long, and damaged 30 farms. The farm where I grew up was about 3 miles south of the first 5 miles or so of the tornado's path. I plan on driving up to Norfolk (NE) one of these days to go thru the newspaper accounts of the event that are supposed to be stored at the public library. BUT, there is something else I would like to learn about this event, just what was the weather system that caused this tornado, that may be much more difficult this many years later.

Lonnie, here it is 2 1/2 years after your post about trying to find more info about that wicked 1954 Madison Co. Nebraska tornado, but I surfed thru again today and thought I'd share some more info. FWIW, you mentioned about someday going into the main library in Norfolk, Nebr. to try to gather more details about that tornadic event. Well, I chase the alley for about 3 weeks each season, and always find time to spend the night in Norfolk so I can visit my grandparent's grave sites, and to drive by that old home they shared that I spent so much time growing up in. A year or two ago while in Norfolk, I visited the Norfolk Museum...which I think is called something like the "Elkhorn Valley Historical Museum"...or some such thing. It was fantastic! I spent hours in there, and would have liked to spend many more, but ran out of time. Anyhow...I have a feeling that this museum might well be the place that would have the info that you're looking for. If you can't find the name of it to check it out further, email me via S. Track, and I'll dig it up for you. Personally, I'd love to find out more about that tornado, too. I'll begin my chase season this year by flying into Omaha around the first week of June. I WILL get to Norfolk, and if time allows...I'll make it a point to visit that historical museum and see what I can dig up too!

 

[Mark Blue]

Joel or any other interested posters:

Thanks for liking my post from 2009, which brought me back here. I tried to revisit http://bangladeshtornadoes.org today and my Norton Internet Security said there are 101 malicious threats on that website. I don't know what to make of it because I was running Norton when I visited that site several times over the last 2 or 3 years, so let me know if your security software is notifying you or just letting you go there without a problem. I have another PC with Kaspersky installed that I'm going to boot up in the next couple of days to see what it has to say, so I'll report back.

EDIT: I checked the above URL against Kaspersky and it said it was fine. Just wanted to follow up with my post of two days ago.