#Tornado touchdown today lafayette in series#

Volatile atmospheric conditions led to thunderstorm activity over eastern Iowa by 1:40–48 p.m. Minimum dew points of 60 ☏ (16 ☌) reached as far north as southern Michigan by mid afternoon. Surface weather analysis showing weather features late on April 11, 1965Ī weather balloon launched from Dodge City, Kansas, recorded winds of 185 mph (298 km/h) aloft another at Peoria, Illinois, subsequently measured 135 kn (155 mph 250 km/h). Weather stations from Topeka, Kansas, to Peoria, Illinois, showed very strong vertical shear that favored intense low-level convergence-combined with a moist dew point in the warm sector, an environment favorable for supercell thunderstorms. Meanwhile, a pronounced dry line-like boundary near the cold front moved into eastern sections of Arkansas and Missouri. Simultaneously, a strong low-level jet stream brought a moistening air mass northward: dew points of at least 60 ☏ (16 ☌) reached southernmost Illinois and Indiana by 10:00 a.m. High temperatures ranged from 83 to 85 ☏ (28 to 29 ☌) from Chicago to St. Concomitant destabilization of the atmosphere occurred over the warm sector due to abundant sunshine from the elevated mixed layer. Strong winds transported steep lapse rates within the elevated mixed layer eastward across the Great Plains.

As the warm front bisected central Iowa and stretched into Illinois and Indiana, a cold front and very dry air aloft-indicative of a potent elevated mixed layer-departed from eastern Kansas. The well-defined surface cyclone over the High Plains intensified as it headed into Iowa, its central pressure decreasing from 990 to 985 mb (29.23 to 29.09 inHg) by 1:00 p.m. Synoptic-scale upper-air analysis late on April 11, 1965 Retreating northward, a warm front interacted with a shortwave to produce isolated thunderstorms from northern Missouri and Central Illinois to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Meanwhile, at 10,000 ft (3,000 m), winds of 70 kn (81 mph 130 km/h) impinged on the southern Great Plains. CDT (12:00 UTC), data from radiosondes indicated wind speeds of 120–150 kn (140–170 mph 220–280 km/h) between the altitudes of 18,000–30,000 ft (5,500–9,100 m) over the Sonoran– Chihuahua Deserts and the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. As early as the preceding day, a strong jet stream in the upper two-thirds of the troposphere traversed the southern Great Plains and was responsible for an outbreak of tornadoes from the Kansas– Missouri border to Central Arkansas, including a violent tornado that struck the town of Conway in Faulkner County, Arkansas, killing six people and injuring 200. Background Ī vigorous extratropical cyclone centered over the northeastern High Plains, in the region of the Dakotas, was the primary catalyst for widespread severe weather on April 11, 1965. In all, the outbreak killed 266 people, injured 3,662 others, and caused $1.217 billion (1965 USD) in damage.

The main part of the outbreak lasted 16 hours and 35 minutes and is among the most intense outbreaks, in terms of tornado strength, ever recorded, including at least four 'double/twin funnel' tornadoes.

#Tornado touchdown today lafayette in series#

The second-largest tornado outbreak on record at the time, this deadly series of tornadoes, which became known as the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, inflicted a swath of destruction from Cedar County, Iowa, to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and a swath 450 miles long (724 km) from Kent County, Michigan, to Montgomery County, Indiana. The worst part of the outbreak occurred during the afternoon hours of April 11 into the overnight hours going into April 12. The tornado outbreak produced 55 confirmed tornadoes in one day and 16 hours. On April 10–12, 1965, a devastating severe weather event affected the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Part of the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1965ġ Most severe tornado damage see Fujita scaleĢ Time from first tornado to last tornado