Madison County Nebraska tornado 05/30/54

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Does anyone have information and photos about the Madison County, Nebraska tornado of May 30, 1954. All I could find out was from a noaa wevent~storms site. Per that site it was an F4 tornado that killed 6 and injured 23, was 167 yards wide and 24 miles long. That is the first tornado that I remember. It started just north northeast of Lindsay, Nebraska, close to the farm where I grew up, and continued to just west northwest of Madison, Nebraska. I was only 9 years old at the time, but I remember how the sky turned black that evening, and when the power went out. The next day my parents drove us kids thru the tornado damaged area. I'll never forget those leveled farm places.

[Mark Blue]

I found this brief reference to the event you mentioned Lonnie:

http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/netorn.htm#M

I happened on this site when trying to find information about the first tornado I saw when I was 5 years old in Kearney County Nebraska that hit my grandparents farm 5 miles south of Minden.

I wonder if this gentleman couldn't help you as it seems that he has a knack for digging up history on old storms:

http://bangladeshtornadoes.org/

I'll keep looking around to see what I can find. Tim V. is pretty good at this type of research as well.

You can also search the NCDC site where I found this link for you, but it's about the same information as above:

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent~ShowEvent~92475 (http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent%7EShowEvent%7E92475)

This is the page you initiate the search from on the NCDC website:

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent~Storms (http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent%7EStorms)

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Thanks Mark, some of these sites I have used to research this tornado, Ill check out the other ones you mentioned. I've also talked to David Hoadley, he suggested checking out Tom Grazulis's book "Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991". Per that site I learned the Madison county tornado was even worse than I remember, was 38 miles long, and damaged 30 farms. The farm where I grew up was about 3 miles south of the first 5 miles or so of the tornado's path. I plan on driving up to Norfolk (NE) one of these days to go thru the newspaper accounts of the event that are supposed to be stored at the public library. BUT, there is something else I would like to learn about this event, just what was the weather system that caused this tornado, that may be much more difficult this many years later.

[Ryan Pfannkuch]

Hi Lonnie, sorry it took me a few days to respond to your message, but figured I'd post my reply here in the public forum for others to see if interested.

As far as examining the weather system that spawned the 5-30-54 tornado, one of the better sources that has not been brought up by previous posters is the NOAA U.S. Daily Weather Maps page:

http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/dwm/data_rescue_daily_weather_maps.html

By plugging both 5-30-54 and 5-31-54 into the drop down menu, we start to get a sense of the weather setup. A surface analysis and 500 mb analysis is depicted for each date, among other maps.

Unfortunately, the main 5-30-54 surface analysis (large image) has a time stamp of 1230 AM CST, so this was quite a few hours before the tornado. It does however show a surface high pressure axis centered over the Ohio Valley, with southerly return flow starting to bring moisture back into the Plains.

Jumping ahead to the 5-31-54 maps, things get a lot more interesting. For one, the 500mb analysis depicts a classic mid-level trough approaching the Central Plains. A comparison of the surface maps in the upper left corner and main large map reveal features at both 1230pm CST on the 30th, and 1230 AM CST on the 31st, respectively. The earlier (upper left) image shows a warm front lifting northward into Nebraska out of Kansas. The larger image from 130 AM on the 31st, although it is a few hours after the tornado occurred, depicts a cold front slicing into eastern Nebraska with a warm front/stationary front draped across east central NE into northwest IA. Note the ob at Omaha, with southerly winds and a dewpoint of 66, while at Sioux City, a thunderstorm was reported.

Clearly, a lot of rapid changes took place in the 24 hour-period examined for these 2 dates on the map archive. All in all, it appeared to be a fairly classic severe weather situation for late May, with a rapid return of low level moisture ahead of a developing mid-level trough over the western U.S.

I hope this web source and brief explanations of the maps help piece together the meteorology of the 5-30-54 tornado event for you.

[GPhillips]

Using Tim V's Digital Atmosphere and his Surface Archives DVD, I produced the map linked below for 0000Z May 31st 1954.

http://members.cox.net/geophi/May30_1954_1800_CST.gif

[Lonnie Kopecky]

Thanks Ryan Phannkuch, GPhillips. This is great information. Thanks for the info about the weather history sites. I'm sure I'll be using them more to learn about other tornado events that have happened around me since that first one I remember. As I am now learning more about that 1954 tornado that hit near home I am wondering if other tornadoes were produced by that same weather event, you folks have provided me some tools to further research this. It may be a few weeks before I get up to Norfolk (NE) to look at the newspaper accounts of the Madison county tornado, when I do I will report my findings. I've got some time before next year's tornado season to research past tornadoes, right?

[Bobby Prentice]

MAY 30, 1954, 2000CST 6 Killed, 23 Injured, 400 yards wide, 38 Mile path length, F4
PLATTE/MADISON/STANTON/WAYNE Counties, Nebraska
Moved NE from NE of St. Bernard, passing SE of Newman Grove, 5m SE of Norfolk, to 2m E of Hoskins. There were deaths on three of the 30 farms that were damaged. Three farms were completely leveled. The bodies of some victims were found in trees. $450,000 (damage).

There was another F2 tornado in Todd County, Minnesota at 1745CST on this day, but Grazulis's book didn't have much information on it.