April 30, 1962 Severe Weather

[Hoosier]

Thought I would post about this with it being the anniversary.  On this day in 1962, a significant severe weather outbreak occurred in the subforum, producing several tornadoes and swaths of damaging winds. 

 

Things got going in the late morning hours as a squall line or multiple squall lines moved into Illinois just north of St. Louis around 11 AM.  This area raced northeastward, knocking down many trees and power lines and causing structural damage to trailers, outbuildings, roofs and other structures along the way.  Wind gusts were clocked as high as 90 mph at official observing stations in central Illinois and up to 110 mph farther north from Pontiac to Chicago.  Unofficial gusts of up to 135 mph were recorded.  In Illinois, an F1 tornado occurred in Carrollton.

 

Storms moved into Indiana around 2 PM, more or less maintaining their intensity.  Straight line winds of up to 100 mph were estimated in Benton and White counties in the northern part of the state.  Storms reached the Fort Wayne area around 4 PM, producing a wind gust of 89 mph at the Fort Wayne airport and causing damage to several airplanes.  In Indiana, tornadoes occurred at DeMotte, near Kouts and in the South Bend area with additional tornadoes occurring near Kentland, Chalmers, Peru and in southwestern Indiana near Bicknell (associated with a separate line in the evening that will be described below). 

 

After doing their damage in Indiana, storms crossed into southern Michigan with little weakening.  Damage here was similar to what occurred upstream with Coldwater, Three Rivers and Pontiac being particularly hard hit.  In Michigan, 2 tornadoes occurred south of Ypsilanti with other tornadoes occurring in Lansing and Grand Ledge.

 

In Ohio, storms hit hardest in the northern part of the state with Lima and Ashtabula taking substantial damage.  Some unconfirmed tornadoes were reported.

 

During the evening, a new line of storms affected areas farther south.  In Illinois, a 50 mile wide swath of substantial damage occurred from Jackson county to Wabash county.  This line crossed into Indiana just before 10 PM, damaging trees, power lines and buildings.  Northern Kentucky was also affected with wind damage occurring from Paducah toward Lexington.

 

 

  

[Hoosier]

Now for some weather maps.  Most maps are from 12z April 30 or 00z May 1, except the surface map which is from 1 PM EST on April 30.  As you can see, we can infer that deep layer shear was pretty good but not jump off the page type of stuff.  However, instability looks like it was very good as temps reached the 80s in most areas with dewpoints into the low-mid 60s, combined with relatively steep lapse rates aloft.  Check out the 12z April 30 sounding from PIA and you can imagine what modifying it for temps in the 80s would look like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[oldlogin]

Another source for displaying Tornado data , in a somewhat unique format is this one  http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2014/tornadoes/

 

Stumbled across it while looking for other data.. Only goes back to 1980---Hoosier--move this to a more appropriate place if needed --Didn't really know where to stick it

[Hoosier]

Another source for displaying Tornado data , in a somewhat unique format is this one  http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2014/tornadoes/

 

Stumbled across it while looking for other data.. Only goes back to 1980---Hoosier--move this to a more appropriate place if needed --Didn't really know where to stick it

 

 

Nice link...hadn't seen that before.