1980-06-03: Grand Island, NE

[Brian Stertz]

I know a boundary was right on I-80 corridor so am sure it was a typical early June favorable setup...mega high CAPEs...east winds north of the boundary...and a hell cap south of the boundary. This is one day I would like to rewind to...

 

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Ryan, regarding "does anyone know what the surface winds were like that day?". If I remember correctly, hot humid fairly strong winds were blowing from the southeast when I stepped out the door from work at 4:00-PM that day. I remember sitting on the front steps (east side) of our house after supper and that wind still blowing in our faces. Our house was just on the south edge of the westbound F4 tornado that occured later that evening. It think it was what they called tornado #5. Brian, what kind of boundary was right on the I-80 corridor, a warm front?

 

[Ryan Pfeifer]

This page has a collection of a bunch of articles on this event: http://www.talkweather.com/forums/index.php?/topic/39712-the-grand-island-tornadoes/

According to these it was a stationary front that had been hovering around Nebraska for about the past 5 days. One also mentioned that weather service locations at Alliance and North Platte estimated the storm was 70,000 feet tall. Numerous articles also mention how the typical ingredients for severe weather weren't really there that day, so I have some doubts about it being a typical early June set-up. Also, they mention the boundary and synoptic conditions being more typical of later in summer. Not to mentional all the atypical features of the storm itself such as multiple anti-cyclonic tornados and tornados moving at 5mph.

 

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Thanks Ryan for posting the site with the articles about this event. For Nebraska based chasers (or any other chasers if in the area) Dr. Roger Wakimoto and Don Davis will be talking about the June 3rd 1980 tornadoes at the Grand Theater, downtown Grand Island on June 2nd 2010 at 7:30-PM. I will be unable to attend as my wife and I will be in TN for a few days. Perhaps a chaser that may be able to be there could post a report about it.

 

[Brian Stertz]

6/3 Sfc map from 23z...surface warm front lifting northward from KS/NE border. Strong
veering wind profiles with westerly 500mb flow. Need to figure up the EHI once the sun went down at GRI.

Jon Finch's website link: http://bangladeshtornadoes.org/UScases/060380/06038023zsf.gif

 

[GPhillips]

The most successful severe storm forecasts back in the day were for more classic, dynamic systems compared to somewhat more subtle systems. Some things we know well now, weren't known well then. Maddox and Doswell wrote a 1982 Severe Local Storms Conference preprint on this case and a couple other cases contrasting the Miller table parameters in more and less dynamic events.

http://www.flame.org/~cdoswell/publications/Maddox&Doswell_12thSLS.pdf
(scanned in so very large file)

 

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Dr. Roger Wakimoto and Don Davis will be talking about the June 3rd 1980 tornadoes at the Grand Theater, downtown Grand Island on June 2nd 2010 at 7:30-PM.
OOPS, MY ERROR, THAT TALK BY DR. ROGER WAKIMOTO AND DON DAVIS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED, FIVE YEARS AGO, NOT THIS YEAR 2010.[/B]

 

[Seth Price]

The Grand Island Event was my introduction to meteorology. I say that because, as a child growing up in MD, I learned to read on the book called "Night of the Twisters" written by a teenager who survived the tornadoes that night. Nebraksa was a far away and exotic place where tornadoes were! It was also encouraging that a teenager had written the book, not some adult- and that maybe someday I could write a book too.

 

[GlennMartin]

This truly was a meteorologically unique event. I can recall a particularly active wavy stationary front from Nebraska to Ohio that first week in June. That night it was as though the atmosphere declared war on Grand Island and for several hours carpet bombed the area. I remember reading that some remained in their basements for perhaps hours.

http://www.gitwisters.com/tenyears.php

 

[Doug Ott]

One of my cousins was hunkered down in a building that night. She told me "Joel...they really DO sound like trains".
Of course I remember Tom Rathman. He was a stud with a capitol "S". You were on which football team with him where? Was he in G.I that night??
Grand Island is kind of like "Ground Zero" for tornadic action in Nebaska...at least it used to be. It's in Hall county...which, if you go thru the SPC records since the 1950's....seems to be the most active county. That and Buffalo county next to there (Kearney).

Thayer couunty is always active. Surprisingly though, sc ne seems to be little slow this spring. I was way too young to remeber this storm. 3 years of age. I probably crapped in my pants, but not because of the storm. I have never really researched this storm, and thanks to Mark for bringing it up. I wanna say that night at G.I., there were up to 7 tornados on the ground. Like I said though, I never researched it and that could be wrong. Be hard to believe. At the same time it was one for history though.

 

[Dawn Thieme]

Yes Doug, Thayer County has been fairly quiet this year, and I'd kind of like to keep it that way!! I don't remember the GI storms either, as I would have just turned 4. I do recall reading Ivy Ruckman's book many times in jr high and high school. So I learned a lot about that storm through the story, and the gitwisters.com website. Tornado Hill is kind of a site to see if you ever get up that way.

 

[Mark Blue]

Tomorrow is the 30 year anniversary of this event. Honestly, it seems like yesterday when I think about it. I'll be curious to see what the Grand Island newspaper does for this particular milestone.

http://theindependent.com/

 

[Mark Blue]

The Grand Island newspaper posted this article in memory of the event and those who did not survive yesterday on their website: http://bit.ly/brWy06

It was pretty much a recap of what happened, but worth reading if you are interested in what happened (Lonnie?!?). I also found this write up on the NWS site for Grand Island and Hastings. Again, nothing new as far as findings and research are concerned, just something to take you down memory lane for those who like following and remembering this event: http://bit.ly/d4pHgp

 

[Dave Rennie]

Interesting reading. I was stationed at Air Force Global Weather Central at Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska, at the time of the tornadoes. Some time later I was able to attend an AMS meeting in Omaha where Ted Fujita was the guest speaker and presented a slide show of his investigation of the Grand Island tornadoes. It was a very interesting presentation.

 

[Brian Hartmann]

I have enjoyed reading more about this event. It was brought back to my mind this evening by, of all things, noticing that my little toddler's bath water was going down the drain anticyclonically. I grew up in Minden and was 3 at the time of the event, so I have no personal recollection beyond the stories of my brother who traveled with my dad to help out to aid the recovery and those of my cousins who lived on the north edge of Hastings and said it was the scariest storm event they ever witnessed even though it didn't affect them directly.

When I was in college, I did a bit of research work into the meteorological setups of the NW-flow supercells in central Nebraska. During that research, I visited the NWS office in Hastings to pick their brains and their archives over the event. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the weather bureau radio transcript from that night. It is riveting to read.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nidj584j5ej2sd1

I hope that you all enjoy reading it.

Brian