1967-04-30: Minnesota Black Sunday Tornado Outbreak

[Dave Rennie]

On Sunday, April 30, 1967, southern Minnesota was hit by 9 tornadoes: One F1, three F2s, two F3s and three F4s. Thirteen people died and 80 were injured.

I was living in Waseca, Minnesota, at the time, when one of the F4 tornadoes moved through the east end of town. I was to the west of the storm path and was in bright sunshine as a four block wide swath was being cut through town. Sirens in town didn't sound until it was too late, as the tornado moved across plowed fields just south of town and could not be seen due to all of the flying dirt and dust.

In the aftermath of this storm, Waseca organized a Civil Defense storm spotter group, which became my first foray into storm spotting.

The Twin Cities NWS office has a section on their website devoted to this series of storms: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/?n=blacksunday

 

[John Paulson]

Even though I wasn't born at this time(and my folks weren't even married) I have heard a lot about this storm due to the fact that after my folks moved they had friends who lived in the small town where they lived at the time of this storm. The family friends said it was a warm humid day with it also being windy. There was an event at church late in the afternoon and but eh time it ended the weather was getting nasty. One of the storms that was a killer had a unique path that I am very familiar with. In Freeborn County MN there is a county road between Freeborn and Alden that other than a few turns is pretty much a straight shot. It is County Road 6 and on this day one of the Tornadoes pretty much followed County Road 6 until the road started to curve a bit. The Tornado itself of course kept going straight and made a direct hit on a property. Now the property is a gun club for shooting sport enthusiasts but in 1967 there was a farm there and the farm took a direct hit and one of the deaths from this series of Tornadoes happened.

 

[John Paulson]

The Channhassen MN National Weather Service has a nice writeup on the event as today (and the exact same calendar as in 1967) is the 50th anniversary of the event.

http://www.weather.gov/media/mpx/April30-1967-MN-Tornadoes.pdf

 

[John Paulson]

For those who were around in 1967(or know severe weather watch history) how common was it to issue a watch that would not take effect for Two hours. I ask because on this day a Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued shortly after noon to take effect at 2 PM. Later that afternoon it was upgraded to a Tornado Watch.

 

[Jeff Wright]

1967 was a busy year:

ENCORE: 'Voice of a Tornado'

Oak Lawn Patch reprises its story of a little known recording of the actual 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado.

patch.com