Southern Minnesota Tornado Outbreak of 1967

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Southern Minnesota Tornado Outbreak of 1967

A home leveled to its foundation in Waseca, Minnesota

Date of tornado outbreak:

April 30, 1967

Duration¹:

2 hours, 5 minutes

Maximum rated tornado²:

F4 tornado

Tornadoes caused:

Damages:

$9 million dollars

Fatalities:

13 (80 injured)

Areas affected:

South central and southeast Minnesota

¹Time from first tornado to last tornado
²Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita Scale

The Southern Minnesota Tornado Outbreak of 1967 was a tornado outbreak that affected portions of south central and southeast Minnesota on April 30, 1967. The outbreak spawned a total of nine tornadoes resulting in thirteen deaths and eighty injuries. Local area residents refer to the day as "Black Sunday".

[edit] Synopsis

By mid-afternoon, a surface low pressure area was centered in Pierre, South Dakota. Several fronts stretched from the low pressure area with a stationary front located from north of Sioux Falls, South Dakota to near LaCrosse, Wisconsin. A warm front extended from south of Sioux Falls to near Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, Missouri. Between the two fronts, air temperatures had warmed into the 60s and low 70s and dew points in the 60s. Winds were quite strong in the area, with speeds from 15 to 25 mph from the east-southeast. By early evening, the warm front had moved to near the Minnesota-Iowa border. By 6 PM CDT, tornadoes began to develop along and just north of the warm front as it moved northward through northern Iowa and into southern Minnesota.

[edit] Confirmed tornadoes

Table of confirmed tornadoes - after surveys by local weather service offices

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
9	0	1	3	2	3	0

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
F3	NW of Alden	Freeborn and Waseca	1805	14 miles	Farm damage was near-F4 in the first part of the path. Homes and barns were destroyed.
F1	Unknown	Steele	1805	0 miles
F4	Hartland	Freeborn and Waseca	1815	30 miles	This tornado followed Hwy-67 into Waseca, destroying or damaging farm buildings on both sides of the road. It cut a four-block-wide swath in town, destroying 16 homes, six of which were leveled, and 25 more were heavily damaged.
F2	E of Hartland	Freeborn and Waseca	1815	30 miles	Destroyed barns were noted west of Lemond and Meriden.
F4	SE of Manly, Iowa	Freeborn and Worth (Iowa)	1820	18 miles	This tornado destroyed about 10 farms, leveling at least three of them in near-F5 fashion. Ten other farms, mostly in Iowa, were extensively damaged.
F4	SW of Twin Lakes	Freeborn and Steele	1823	40 miles	Farms were leveled at a half dozen locations along the path. There was $2,000,000 damage in Albert Lea, where 26 homes were destroyed and 64 were badly damaged.
F3	W of Carpenter, Iowa	Freeborn and Worth (Iowa)	1828	6 miles	About a half dozen farms were extensively damaged, with at least two farm homes destroyed.
F2	SE of Austin	Mower	1915	6 miles	At least two barns and one home were unroofed and torn apart.
F2	Marion	Olmsted	2010	8 miles	A trailer and a barn were destroyed.