1965-04-11: Palm Sunday Outbreak

[Andy Wehrle]

This is probably tops on my wish-list after the 1974 Super Outbreak for a pre-Doppler era event that I would have liked to watch unfold on modern WSR-88D (and I'm sure the forecasters working it at the time would have loved a tool like that, too!). Guessing some of the imagery from the stations covering southern MI/northern IN and NW OH would probably have looked similar to what KBMX and KGWX looked like on the evening of April 27, 2011 - just a ridiculously concentrated cluster of classic tornadic supercells.

 

[Warren Faidley]

Back in the day, the NWS drew pictures on maps from the WSR-57 units as there was no way to record the events in the non-digital age except taking a picture of the screen. It would be interesting to make modern radar simulations based on such records, damage reports, etc. (Hand-drawn image from the 1974 Super Outbreak below - NWS image).

 

[Jamie G Cox]

I've been a lurker on here for years, but haven't posted much at all. I think it's because I feel inferior to most of you well versed chasers and meteorologists, where I've only really chased in my backyard and have been obsessed with meteorology, and eventually chasing, since I've been a toddler. So all my knowledge is self learned from reading the SPC daily until I understood everything they were saying, following posts on here, watching videos and television since a child, etc.

This event holds a special place in my heart. I have lived about 27 years of my life, within two miles for several years and a mile or less for 24 years, of the path of the two F4 tornadoes that eventually tracked from Northeastern Indiana and into my county in Michigan. My father, siblings and his parents were about a mile outside of the path when they struck back to back and my mother, aunt, grandparents and great grandparents were directly in the path, having much of their farm damaged. Luckily they all made it and the houses weren't demolished.

The stories I've constantly been told and picked at since a small child, are definitely entertaining. In all likelihood, this event spurred my passion for thunderstorms, tornado and meteorology in general(Twister definitely added fuel to the fire, lol). I even had a fear of thunderstorms when I was younger, not understanding that every thunderstorm isn't one that might drop a giant tornado at any moment lol. Although I'm still slightly terrified of lightning and the complete unpredictability of it. Far more than I fear tornadoes.

I've noticed a lot of people got their passion from this event, in areas that don't have the yearly threats in tornado alley. Although mine came through stories, as I was born in '89. I see this page hasn't been bumped in awhile, but since I'd like to post more and this was the year I really planned and had the capacity to expand my chasing area to better grounds(given COVID-19 doesn't ruin it), I figured I'd share why I grew up in Michigan, obsessed as a child with meteorology, mainly thunderstorms, supercells and tornadoes.

I'd love to share some second hand account stories of the event and how it played out in Hillsdale County, Michigan, if any interest comes back to this thread. I'm glad for some of the links here that I plan on reading, as I've always wanted to know what the experts thought the setup and parameters were, not having the technology back then. I've always wanted to compare recent setups in the area to as close as the Palm Sunday Outbreak. I've heard at the time, Indiana and Michigan couldn't even communicate. So Michigan was a sitting duck as chaos was happening in Indiana. Also heard that the official forecasts for the day were "thunderstorms". I find it fascinating how different the forecast would look like with a setup like that today.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Without that morning cluster of rain/storms that reduced the instability over the Midwest, we were close to seeing something perhaps approaching to this magnitude this past Saturday. Even without becoming large/intense supercells, a few storms were still able to produce tornadoes near/just after dark in northern IL/eastern IA and SW WI.

Perhaps the closest thing seen in modern times is 11/17/2013 with numerous fast-moving tornadic supercells across a large area of IL and IN, although that didn't affect IA, WI, MI and OH.

 

[Jimmy Dewitt]

I haven't been on the Stormtrack forum very long and just came across this subject. Wow does this bring back old memories! I am also from Toledo and like others have stated, this is the event that started my interest in storms. As a child we lived in the Point Place and Manhattan neighborhoods, not far from the tornadoes' track. In 62 we moved away to a small town south of Toledo. I was 11 in 65 and remember the nite the storm hit. We heard reports of tornado damage but didn't see any of it till the evening news on Monday. On Tuesday evening my dad loaded us up in the car to go see it in person. Driving north on I-75 we came to a slow crawl as others had the same idea as dad. Looking out as we approached the area I didn't see much damage but the dirt in several farm fields seemed to be 'churned up'. As we cleared the banks of a road overpass there it was, total devastation . People were sorting through debris for anything left of their belongings among overturned cars, sections of roofs and walls, and bricks and paper everywhere. My parents had friends that lived in this part of town and they were worried if they were ok. From there we went to see my great uncle who lived across the street from the little shopping center on Sylvania Ave. Much of the roof of one of the buildings was laying in the lot beside his house. He didn't have too much damage to his little house but the two story brick house next to his lot lost the whole upper story.
As I read the above posts I remembered that the Toledo Blade newspaper had many pictures and stories from that storm . Then I found the news videos posted. I watched with amazement as person after person told their stories. Then I had absolute chills. Dr. Ritter from the video clip was one of my parents friends they had worried about. Mrs. Ritter was a very nice lady who picked me up in her Jeepster on the way to taking her son and me to school.
As a side note, a nice man who lived down our street in Elmore, was also a victim of the bus crash on I-75. He died days later of his injuries and so wasn't included in the initial report.
Sorry for the long post, hope it adds insight to this story.