Today in weather history . . .

[Thomas Loades]

September 16 • 1928 — a hurricane makes landfall on the Florida coast at West Palm Beach, sending the barometer to a new low of 27.43 inches; it has already killed almost 1,000 people across the Caribbean, mostly in Guadeloupe and Pureto Rico, but the worst was yet to come.

As the storm moved inland, it was still of sufficient strength to whip Lake Okeechobee into a frenzy and send it over the flimsy flood defences that existed there at the time. The waters then inundated the small resort towns of Bare Beach, Lake Harbor, Belle Glade, Pelican Bay, Pahokee, and Canal Point. People were not just killed by drowning or when their homes, or the hotels they'd fled to, collapsed, but by the natural swamp life like deadly water mocassins that were flushed out of their habitats quite literally and into contact with humans . . . not a good thing.

The storm killed 2,500 in Florida, and years later farmers and property developers in the area were still finding skeletal remains of the victims. Remarkably, however, a group of women and children huddled on a barge on the lake itself survived.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/images/wea00405.jpg
A 10-foot-long 2x4 driven through the trunk of a royal palm on Puerto Rico following the landfall of the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane on Sep. 13, 1928.

 

[Thomas Loades]

September 18 • 1926 — the Great Miami Hurricane, fifth of the 1926 season, devastates the city in the early hours of the morning, claiming a total of 243 lives and putting an end to the property boom that the city has experienced. It was one of the most intense of the time, with pressure down to 27.61 inches and winds of 140–160 mph. It reduced the city's tourist attraction factor, too, as most of the lavish hotels (built with all the money from the property boom) and marinas were badly damaged. Many fatalities in the storm resulted when people fled their shelters in the eye of the storm, since they — and Miami — were not used to hurricanes.
• 1988 — Hurricane Gilbert finally reaches an end with the death of a pilot whose plane crashed near Muskogee, OK, in storm-generated heavy rains — the last of some 327 deaths caused by Gilbert starting in Venezuela, where, on Sept. 10, the southern fringes of the storm generated floods and mudslides that killed 50; then, on the 12th, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands were battered by the now category 3 storm. On the 13th, Gilbert intensified over the western Caribbean to the strongest Western Hemisphere storm yet recorded: a category 5 with pressure down to 888 mb, or 26.23 inches, and an eye just 8 miles wide. This was the storm that roared into the Yucatan Peninsula on the evening of Sept. 15, laying waste to many resorts and coastal towns. Fortunately, there was minimal loss of life since most people had evacuated the area. By the 16th, the storm crossed into the Gulf of Mexico, by which time it had weakened to a category 3. On the morning of the 17th, it made its last landfall, about 100mi. S of the TX/Mexico border. Again, there were few fatalities, since the area was not heavily populated — but this was not to last. As the weakening Gilbert made its way to the inland city of Monterrey, its profuse rains overwhelmed rivers . . . and a quartet of tourists' buses, carrying a total of 200 passengers. They were forced to the roof of the buses while waiting for rescue (at which time 2 policemen drowned as they attempted to reach the buses in a tractor that overturned); but it was never to arrive. The buses all overturned and were swept aaway before anyone could be saved, and all but 13 of the tourists drowned. Gilbert also spawned 82 tornadoes in S TX, and caused one other fatality in the U.S. — a man in San Antonio, TX who died when strong winds snapped a power pole which struck his house.
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/flight/images/fly00239.jpg
Hurricane Gilbert at peak intensity, September 13, 1988

 

[Thomas Loades]

September 21/22 • 1989 — overnight, hurricane Hugo makes landfall on the SC coast at Charleston and Folly Beach as a category 4 hurricane. In the previous days (Sep. 17–19) it had battered The U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guadeloupe as a category 5 storm; though it had subsided (marginally) by this point, it still became the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. History, with a total of $10.5 billion in damage. (That may change after the 2004 hurricane season, but the final figures aren't in yet.)
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/images/wea00456.jpg Hurricane Hugo at landfall, 0000 EDT September 22, 1989

September 26 • 1954 — a typhoon passing between Honshu and Hokkaido islands, Japan, encounters the car-ferry Toya Maru, sailing from Aomori (Honshu) to Hakodate (Hokkaido). Unfortunately, railway cars in the ship's vehicle hold break loose in the heavy seas, slide over to one side of the ship, and cause it to capsize. 1,100 passengers drown. The typhoon, which did extensive damage to towns in southern Hokkaido, was of unprecedented intensity for such a northern altitude — even though it was a strong category 2.

September 26–7 • 1959 — Typhoon Vera hammers the SE part of Honshu, Japan, with winds of 150 mph and a storm surge of at least 18 feet. It struck hardest the city of Nagoya, where most of the fatalities (somewhere on the order of 1,700–2,000) occurred. A lot of damage was done by the storm surge destroying a lumber yard and sending its contents hurtling through nearby residential neighborhoods.


September 28 • 1955 — hurricane Janet dissipates over inland Mexico after a rampage across the Caribbean for the last 6 days which claimed between 538 and 681 lives, mostly in Barbados, Belize, and Mexico (particularly around Tampico) — and the three crew members and 2 passengers, both Canadian journalists, of the only Hurricane Hunter flight ever to be lost in action over the western Atlantic. They set out on September 27 from Biloxi, MS, to intercept the storm in the Gulf of Mexico, and radioed their last message on the approach to the eyewall; Janet was a category 5 at the time. No trace was ever found of them or the plane. • In the western Pacific, 6 crewmembers of “Swan 38,†a typhoon reconnaisance plane set out from Guam on August 12, 1974, to take measurements in typhoon Betsy, died (presumably) when their plane vanished in the storm, about 200m SE of Hong Kong. They, too, were the only fatalities in the entire run of typhoon reconnaisance in the W. Pacific, from 1955 to 1987, when the flights were cancelled. Lest we forget.

 

[Thomas Loades]

October 17 • 1954 — Hurricane Hazel finally dissipates over Ontario after devastating Haiti, the east coast of the U.S., and eastern Canada. On October 13, Hazel struck Haiti as a category 3, doing the worst damage on the south coast, especially in the town of Jacmel. Several thousand were killed here. As Hazel moved north, she intensified to category 4, and struck the SC coast at Holden Beach on October 15. Most of that town, and numerous other beachside communities around the northern SC and southern NC coast were badly damaged. That was not to be the end of Hazel, though; the next day, she continued to move up the east coast, assaulting Washington, DC with 98-mph winds that shredded the flag atop the Capitol, forced government workers home early (they had to struggle their way in the storm, though), and raised the Potomac River 9 feet. New York also experienced winds of 100 mph (recorded at LaGuardia airport) as the storm passed by. The final king-hit from the storm came to Toronto, ON, where the dying Hazel released much of her remaining precipitation on October 17, causing the Don river to burst its banks and charge through town and the surrounding area. It's still Canada's worst hurricane. • Hazel was the worst of the “Bad Girls of 1954,â€￾ after Carol struck CT, Long Island, NY, MA, and RI (flooding downtown Providence as did the 1938 Long Island Express on September 22, 1938, which killed 600 in New England) on August 31 — then Edna struck ME in late September.

 

[Thomas Loades]

October 31 • 1991 — “The Perfect Storm†reaches peak intensity off the New England coast. It was a nor’easter on steroids, really — formed by the convergence of a depression in the N Atlantic with the tepid hurricane Grace (which would, in any other situation, form a fairly strong extratropical cyclone anyway), plus a high moving SE from Canada, which provided dry air that accelerated the intensification of the storm, in much the same way that both dry and moist air are involved with the formation of severe thunderstorms. Anyway, the storm picked right up with 120-mph winds and waves up to 100 feet measured by NOAA automated buoys. There were at least 12 fatalities with the storm — 9 at sea (most on the Gloucester, MA trawler Andrea Gail, which sank), and at least 3 on land around RI, NY, and NJ. The worst damage was done in MA, where the storm struck this evening; the storm warped the coastline of Nantucket Island into a new shape, while scouring 7 homes off the shoreline. The next day, the storm swung E and disspated . . . but then a hurricane formed out of what had been the core of the storm. It was left unnamed, and made landfall on the Newfoundland coast on the evening of November 4.

November 7–13 • 1913 — “The Great White Hurricane†pounds the Great Lakes with winds of 60 mph and faster gusts, pressure down to 28.60 inches (968.5 mb), and several feet of snow blanketing the communities all around the lakes. Though a 1978 blizzard was more intense, it was in January, when the lakes' shipping lanes had closed — in this storm, they had not. As a result, many ships were caught out aon the water in the storm, and 8 large freighters were sunk (among other boats), and most of the 235 deaths were on them.

November 26–7 • 1703 — the Great Storm savages the English channel and the south coast of Britain. Even though it struck at night, hundreds still drowned as ships in the Channel suddenly encountered the vicious storm — we can only assume it was, like other violent windstorms to strike Britain in the fall and winter, a very intense depression — and, of course, without warning. Over land, many towns suffered damage and deaths, and at least one tornado occurred in the storm. (Most of what we know of this event comes from a pamphlet written by Daniel Defoe, who was an unknown copywriter at the time.

December 17–8 • 1944 — under the advice of the Navy's weather forecast, Admiral William F. Halsey steered his fleet SW, toward the Philippines (where his fleet were headed), but away from Typhoon Cobra, which — he was advised — was off to the E. Alas, the Navy's forecast was wrong, and he was, in fact, steering his fleet right into Cobra. The fleet sailed right through it, and re-emerged three cruisers and 790 men fewer than before they went in. Most were lost as towering waves rolled the ships so far over that water poured down their funnels and flooded the boilers, disabling the engines. Just 6 months later, another of Halsey's fleets sailed into Typhoon Viper, again due to an incorrect weather forecast, but with less catastrophic results — only 3 died this time, and no ships sank.[/b]

 

[Thomas Loades]

March 12–14 • 1888 / 1993 — In this period, two exceptional winter storms affected the United States. The first was New York's legendary "White Hurricane," a violent blizzard with 100-mph+ winds and about 10 feet of snow that crippled the city. The lack of any reference to it in forecasts (it was meant to be "cold, but clear") made things all the worse. Over 500 died, many in the course of struggling to work lest they lose their jobs.

March 13 • 1990 — a tornado outbreak of unusual expanse and intensity for so early in the season spawns at least 30 tornadoes from OK to IL; three violent tornadoes came of it (two in KS, one in NE), and the first evidence that consecutive tornado family members could merge was obtained through photos and videos of the Hesston and Goessel, KS, tornadoes.

March 18 • 1925 —
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/images/wea00237.jpg
Along the black line on the center of this map, the worst single tornado disaster in U.S. history took place.

695 people in a string of towns on a mining ridge across three states — Missouri, Illinois, Indiana — were killed by a gargantuan tornado, the likes of which had never been seen before and, just as well, not seen since. The tornado roared forward at 60–73 mph, and covered 219 miles in three hours seventeen minutes. More people died in schools, rural areas, and a single town (Murphysboro, IL*) than any other tornado. It seems that the near invisiblity of the tornado — it presented itself as a "boiling wall of fog" to a DeSoto, IL, observer — contributed to its high death toll; no-one could really tell what was coming at them.

It may be that this was not one tornado but a family, either linked by downbursts or merging members. It certainly seems that the path between Biehle, MO, and Princeton, IN — the bulk of the path — was a singular damage track. All the same, we'll never know. But then, mystique does tend to add to the awe one feels about such a remarkable tornado, despite its drastic toll.

The other tornadoes in AL, TN, KY, and IN that day brought the total death toll to 747 — probably the worst tornado outbreak in U.S. history.

*There is some contention as to whether this distinction stands; the Tupelo, MS, tornado of April 5, 1936, may have killed more — this can't be confirmed due to the racism rampant among newspapers of the time, where fatalities among the black population tended to be ignored. The MS State Geologist put the toll at 233 a few days after the tornado — when the numbers of injured were still, obviously, high. The official toll of the Tupelo tornado is 216.

 

[Thomas Loades]

March 23 • 1913 — An Easter tornado outbreak, again, unusually far north for this time of year, affects KS and NE; the high- (or rather low-) point of this event was an F4 that struck Omaha, and killed 94 people while razing numerous suburbs.

March 27 • 1994 — The “Palm Sunday-II†outbreak, which is closer to the norm in one respect (the activity was concentrated in the southern states), but unusual in another (most of the tornadoes were in the late morning). The most notable event was a large F4 tornado which killed 20 people in the Goshen Methodist Church at Piedmont, AL — and provided the impetus for a large-scale warning siren network to be installed; another F4 killed an entire family (8 members) when it threw their double-wide trailer several hundred yards along a slope of Henderson Mountain, GA. • And not quite weather, but in 1964, the second-largest earthquake ever recorded — a magnitude 9.2 — shakes Prince William Sound and the adjacent AK coast (including the towns of Anchorage, Valdez, and Seward) for four minutes. It knocks parts of the coast as much as 25 feet down from where they'd previously sat, kills 116, and sends tsunamis across the Pacific — though they did their worst closest to home, on Kodiak Island, AK, they caused considerable damage down the North American coast: 2 died in BC, 5 in OR, and about 30 in Crescent City, CA, which was severely damaged. (The crescent-shaped bay it's named for reflected the waves as they passed, and focused them right on the town.)

 

[Thomas Loades]

April 1 • 1946 —
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/c&gs/images/theb2705.jpg
(Again, not quite weather, but worthy of mention) Quite early this morning, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolts the 5-man crew of the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island (Aleutian Is.), AK, awake. It stops after a minute. They think no more of it, and may not have even seen the 100-foot high wave that bore down on them 48 minutes later until it was far too late. The lighthouse was totally demolished, and the crew were killed.

Several hours later, and on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, most people are up and preparing for the day ahead. At Laupāhoehoe, children are arriving at their oceanfront elementary school, and laugh off some of their classmates’ incredulous statements that the ocean's going dry — “Oh, yeah. April fools!†At Hilo, the largest city on the northern coast, the reaction is much the same. (Even when children aren’t involved.)

Then, the ocean starts coming back in. When it does so, it reaches higher than normal — and leaves fish flopping around. People throng to the shorelines, as the ocean pulls way back and comes right in again . . .

. . . But the third time, it pulls out, piles higher, and higher, and when it comes back in, it doesn’t stop at all. No, it charges in as a foaming, roaring mass looming above 30-foot-high coconut palms. It casually rips a span off the steel railroad bridge over the Wailuku river in W Hilo. It kicks all the buildings on the oceanfront side of Kamehameha avenue well into the landward side. It charges through the rambling Japanese neighborhood of Shinmachi and the pristine, orderly new subdivisions of Keaukaha and Waiākea alike. There are four more moderate waves, then another monster. The ocean finally stills. An hour-and-a-half has passed.

159 people were killed on Hawai‘i in the 1946 tsunami — 96 in Hilo, and another 25 at Laupāhoehoe (among those, 16 students and 5 teachers at the school). Also among the dead is the stevedore pictured above, swept off the Hilo Commercial Piers. The picture was taken from the S.S. Brigham Victory, moored at the piers; she survived unscathed. Waves reached 30 feet in Hilo and Laupāhoehoe, and up to 55 feet at Pololu Valley, to the west of the Big Island’s N coast. The rest of the Hawai‘ian Islands passed through relatively unscathed.

As this tragedy was entirely unprecedented — and more than a few survivors were now all too aware of just what a tsunami was — it proved the impetus for the founding of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which still operates today at ‘Ewa Beach, near Honolulu, O‘ahu.

Two big earthquakes — an 8.8 at Kamchatka, Nov. 4, 1952, and a 9.1 in the Aleutians, March 9, 1957 — generated tsunamis that reached Hawai‘i and proved good tests for the PTWC.

 

[Thomas Loades]

also on April 1 • 1960 — The first weather satellite, TIROS I, is launched from Cape Canaveral and soon activated. Though exceptionally crude by today's standards (its camera was just a TV camera), it was invaulable for gathering data and views of cloud formations that were previously obtainable — barely — only from high-altitude research gondolas. Just over a week later, TIROS I takes the first satellite image of a tropical cyclone, in this case a decaying system a few hundred miles E of the Queensland (Australia) coast:
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/space/images/spac0101.jpg

April 2 • 1957 —
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/images/wea02226.jpg
A tornado meanders up the west side of Dallas, TX, giving thousands of citizens a magnificent view of it. At least 125 people took 450 black and white photos, 200 color slides, and over 2,000 feet of movie film — all of which proved invaluable to the study of a tornado's life cycle, since just about every bit of it was photographed here. At the time the above photo was taken, the tornado was demolishing low-grade housing near the south bank of the Trinity River. Several of the tornado's 10 fatalities occurred there.

April 3–4 • 1974 —

20 hours
148 tornadoes
OH / MS / AL / GA / SC / NC / IL / IN / KY / TN / MI / WV / VA / ON

We all know the rest, really, don't we?

 

[Robert Dewey]

On this date (well, April 6th) back in 1886: Detroit, MI set it's 24 hour record for most snowfall, at 25.4 inches of snow, with drifts up and over 12 feet high. The snow was so heavy that people used crow bars and ice picks just to cut a path through the snow.

APRIL 1886 -

By early April 1886, some residents of Southeast Lower Michigan had most likely started on spring outdoor activities. High temperatures frequently pushed well into the 50s from mid March on; the last hint of snow fell nearly two weeks before on the 23rd. No doubt the growing season's new green vegetation was well underway.

The weather days proceeding the massive and incredible snowstorm hinted little of what was yet to come; however, there were some subtle signs of trouble brewing. The first was a fresh, brisk northeast wind that blew continuously for nearly three days prior to 6th (generally, an easterly wind along with a falling barometer in this region, foretells of foul weather approaching the area). On the 4th into the 5th, observations including temperatures, wind flow and pressure changes indicated an unseasonably cold high pressure system pushing slowly into Southern Canada and the Northern Great Lakes. This persistent and strengthening northeast wind along with an extended period of steady, then slowly falling barometric pressure, during the three-day period (3rd, 4th and 5th), indicates this high was a fairly strong, resilient and a blocking type of high pressure. A second and more foreboding sign of what was to come was indeed a rapidly falling barometric pressure later on the 5th, which foretold of the major storm approaching Southeast Lower Michigan. The surface observations late on the 5th indicated a low pressure and storm center approaching the Southern Great Lakes from the south or southwest (most likely from Illinois, Indiana or Ohio) as the cold high to the north slowly retreated.

The afternoon high on the 5th reached only 38 degrees (about 15 degrees below normal) and then held nearly steady into the evening. Increasing high cirrostratus clouds mingled with the sunset but then, quickly lowered to altostratus and nimbostratus as midnight approached. Light snow began to fly just after midnight and remained light until becoming heavy during the predawn hours. Note the following taken from the actual Detroit Weather Log dated April 6th, 1886:

"Snow began at 12:30 AM and fell light until about 4:30 AM when it began to fall heavy and a tremendous fall of snow continued all day, ending at 9:00 PM. The fall at 7:00 AM was 4.6" and at 3:00 PM was 17.1" and at 11:00 PM, 2.4" making the total of 24.1 inches melted from the snow gauge. The rain gauge was soon snowed full and was practically useless. Total fall of the snow on the level was 24.5 inches. The snow was badly drifted by the heavy gale. The drifts in some places were 12 feet high and the snow in the street was from 10" to 40" inches deep. A heavy north gale set in at 1:45 AM and raged in fury all day reaching 40 miles north at 2:15 PM and continued all the remainder of the day. Its force with the snow was appalling. It blew the snow in fine particles against the face, cutting like a knife."

The synopsis continues with a description of numerous street cars that were abandoned, strewn about and laying in all sorts of positions. As one might expect with the snow falling in April, the snow contained a high water content (2.43") and, therefore, it was very heavy and packed down well. Obviously, wading through the snow to get around on foot was extremely difficult - so much so that it became necessary to use crowbars and ice picks just to clean a path on the street. Maneuvering through, or just moving the snow, was such a monumental chore that even several ton railroad cars were "held prisoner in their houses". On the train tracks, freight cars were immobilized and abandoned across all of Southeast Lower Michigan. Temperatures held in the upper 20s to around 30 through the entire snowfall, with over two feet of snow reported on the ground. The strong northeast to north gale sculptured towering drifts of snow up to 12 feet high across the landscape .The howling wind averaged over 30 mph during the 24 hour period. The lowest barometric pressure reading noted was 29.60 inches at 11:00 AM on the 6th. This reading isn't too terribly deep or severe (the lowest pressure ever observed in Detroit was 28.34 inches during the late January blizzard of 1978), but the pressure was taken only five times daily (7:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM, 7:00 PM and 11:00 PM), so it likely fell lower As the center of the low pressure drifted further north into the Great Lakes on the 7th, milder air from the south was drawn into Southeast Lower Michigan. The sky cleared as the wind shifted to the south and the temperature rose to 40 degrees, in spite of the very heavy snow cover. In the days following the storm, temperatures managed to push up well into the 50s and even reached the mid 70s by mid month, after all, this was April, right?

This storm stands as Detroit's biggest and severest snowstorm and is well summarized by the following quote in the journal and actually would still stand to this day. . .

"The storm was unprecedented in fierceness, snowfall and blockades in the history of the service and the oldest inhabitants can recall nothing to equal it".

Be glad we're not looking at that...

 

[Thomas Loades]

April 5–6 • 1936 — An week of considerable tornadic activity around the southern states reaches a climax on the night of the 5th and the morning of the 6th. At 2055 on April 5, a tornado touches down in Lee County, MS, and heads NE into the city of Tupelo. Homes on the western and northern sides of town are destroyed, and at least 216 people died (probably more — see March 18 entry). Then, at 0730 on the morning of the 6th, two funnels — apparently separate tornadoes, as opposed to a single multiple vortex tornado — touch down just W and SW of downtown Gainesville, GA, and converge there as they move E. Stores and industries are flattened, and rubble fills the streets up to 10 feet deep. At least 203 people die (again, maybe more, as 40 were still missing when that figure was published). About 70 of those deaths were in the Cooper Pants Factory, a record for deaths in a single building.

April 9 • 1947 —
[Broken External Image]:http://members.aol.com/tornadfoto/g-wdwd1.gif
This small tornado near White Deer, TX, was the preceeding tornado family member of possibly the worst tornado to hit the TX–OK panhandle region. Not long after the photo was taken, the next family member touched down 5 miles NW of Pampa, TX, and moved NE. It destroyed the town of Glazier, much of Higgins, moved into OK, then gouged a path up to 1.5 miles wide through Woodward. After that, what may have been this tornado, or perhaps five more family members and associated downbursts, passed through Woods County, and into Barber and Kingsman counties, KS. Debris from Woodward was dropped onto Barber county, in an area about 15 miles away from the/a tornado. 181 people were killed, about 107 of them at Woodward, where over 1,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

The remains of Glazier, TX, after the Woodward Tornado

 

[Thomas Loades]

April 10 • 1979 — An outbreak of tornadoes along the Red River Valley leaves a record total for tornado damage — unbroken for 20 years — and proves to be the catalyst for more than a few present-day chasers' interest in severe weather (on this board, anyway). The worst tornadoes were:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.srh.weather.gov/oun/storms/19790410/vernontornadob.jpg
Vernon, TX The Vernon tornado killed 11 people; the first death occurred when the tornado flung a vehicle off HWY-70 N of Lockett, killing the driver. Then, the tornado cut right through the S and E parts of Vernon, damaging businesses, warehouses, and several blocks of homes. Three died there. The other 7 died when the tornado crossed HWY-287 and wrecked numerous vehicles. Three more homes were destroyed and five damaged in Tillman County, OK, where the tornado dissipated. It did $27,000,000 damage, and was rated F4.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.srh.weather.gov/oun/storms/19790410/harrold04a.jpg[Broken External Image]:http://www.srh.weather.gov/oun/storms/19790410/harrold11a.jpg[Broken External Image]:http://www.srh.weather.gov/oun/storms/19790410/harrold21a.jpg
Harrold, TX/Grandfield, OK This tornado did up to F2 damage over a path 64 miles long, and caused one death in TX, again involving vehicles — a woman left her car and sought shelter from the approaching tornado under a semi-trailer, but was killed when the tornado rolled it onto her.

Lawton, OK • Three people were killed and 100 injured as a tornado cut a short (4-mile-long) path in the SE part of Lawton. Nearly 600 buildings were damaged. The tornado was an F3.

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Wichita Falls, TX This tornado was, until the 1999 Moore, OK, tornado, the costliest single tornado in U.S. history, with a toll of $400,000,000. That largely owed to the tornado passing right through the S part of Wichita Falls, with an unusually continuous swath of F4 damage within the path. Also, several schools, shopping centers, and a National Guard armory were hit, and generally badly damaged. The tornado continued to level homes to the ground until it dissipated NNE of Waurika, OK, just after 1900 — having been on the ground about an hour. Again, vehicles played a major part in the death toll (between 42 and 46, depending on the source). 25 of the deaths occurred in cars; 16 of those dead were trying to escape the tornado by car — and the homes of 11 of those 16 were undamaged by the tornado.

 

[Thomas Loades]

April 11–12 • 1965 —
[Broken External Image]:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/images/wea00217.jpg
A multiple-vortex tornado rips apart the Midway Trailer Park, Dunlap, IN. This and 36 other tornadoes between about 1600 April 11 and 0100 April 12 — the Palm Sunday[-I] Outbreak — kill between 256 and 271 in IA, IL, IN, MI, and OH; with 19 F4/F5 tornadoes, it’s the second most violent outbreak to date.

 

[Thomas Loades]

April 14 • 1912 — A colder than usual spring sees more icebergs persisting further south than usual in the North Atlantic Ocean, inevitably running into shipping lanes. For the White Star Line's RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York, this would be mere inconveniece — if other ships' ice warnings hadn't been ignored this evening. At 2340 LST, she fails to miss an iceberg in time, and an underwater spur intermittently pops open her hull over a 300-foot stretch of her starboard side. The openings cover an area of only 12 square feet, but that's enough. At 0220 the next day, she sinks and takes 1,522 passengers and crew with her.

• 1999 — one of Australia's costliest natural disasters occurs this evening as a supercell moves NE right along the coastal suburbs of Sydney, NSW. It drops hail up to baseball size, and does AUS$1.4 billion damage (mainly because the coastal and other eastern suburbs are the "flashy" ones). The supercell registers a hook echo on radar for over an hour, but no tornado damage is noted. Just as well — had one been on the ground, it would have gone right through downtown Sydney.

 

[Thomas Loades]

April 16 • 1998 — A tornado outbreak in TN sees a really big one (an F5) pass by Lawrenceburg, ripping grass out of the ground in huge swaths and sweeping several homes entirely away; but the 'nader that gets most, if not all the attention is one that, at 1530, touches down on downtown Nashville. After blowing out skyscrapers' windows and setting back construction of the new Tennessee Oilers stadium considerably, it moves into the suburbs, where it does F3 damage and causes its only fatality, a college student who died after a tree fell on him in a park.

This was the last image the webcam on the roof of WTVF-TV’s building made before it stopped functioning, at 1532 LDT. The leading edge of the wall cloud/tornado is visible from the left to upper right. The tornado was on the ground at the time — it was unusually large, its circulation occupying all the space beneath the wall cloud.