This was the house they purchased and called home until the day they both had to leave it and go to a care center. If I remember right, it was for quite a long time as the sirens just kept going and going and going. We persevere through many difficulties and continue to march on. Tuesday, June 3,1980 marked one of the most unique tornado events to ever impact Nebraska, if not the entire United States. This was taken from the roof of Grandpa and Grandma’s house – looking south on South Locust Street. This 700-yard wide tornado tracked south for 7 miles, lifting 4 miles northwest of downtown Grand Island. Upper air analysis shows a jet streak of 70-90 knots nosing into portions of the Central Plains from the southwest. U.S. tornadoes 1950-2017. No one who was in Grand Island, Nebraska on June 3, 1980 will ever forget that night. A short-lived tornado set down north of Highway 2 near the intersection of Webb Road and Airport Road, just east of the first tornado. Livestock all over the neighborhood was restless that night. But science didn’t expect what happened. Remember…they were supposed to be leaving for Oklahoma the very next day. They are the reason I am the way I am today. 1980 Grand Island,NE Tornado Newspaper Stamped June 3rd, 1980 The Story Of The Grand Island Tornadoes, The Grand Island Daily Independent. The highest rated tornado was a F4 The images below are radar images taken from the Weather Serveillance Radar-1957 (WSR-57) which was in service at the Weather Service Office at the Grand Island Airport from the early 1970s through the mid 1990s. – Source. Tornado warnings were issued for Grand Island and surrounding areas based on the radar signatures and storm spotter reports. This tornado was the first of 3 anti-cyclonic tornadoes that evening, and moved northeast approximately 1 mile before lifting. It’s just a building now…no longer a home. These photos show the aftermath of tornadoes that have hit Nebraska since 1913. Kearney - Daily This many slow-moving, damaging tornadoes affecting such a small-but-populated geographic area makes it an one-of-a-kind event, but what made it even more unique was the fact that 3 of the 7 tornadoes were anti-cyclonic! Local 24 Hour Precip Maps You guys are the next generation of leaders and I appreciate that you did something like that. They were lucky that way. NWS Additional advances in computing power and equipment improvements over the past several years have given meteorologists powerful tools to assess anything from drizzle to freezing rain to tornadoes. The final tornado of the evening touched down southeast of the Hall-Hamilton County bridge. And thank you!! I don’t know what year it was built but it was outside of the Grand Island city limits. TornadoHistoryProject.com - Over 60,000 tornado maps. Just anxious to hear how it goes. Lot of memories. I feel like your mom – sorry! I was not. Local Storm Reports, Forecasts What a CRAZY sky! Judy Ruff. Snow Cover, Climate Jun 4, 2015 - Photos of the weather data, and aftermath pictures after the tornadoes hit Grand Island on June 3, 1980. One that you’ll NEVER forget! Five people lost their lives as a result of these tornadoes, with around 200 people injured. So the cleanup continued and a wall was built. Seven tornadoes terrorized Grand Island and surrounding areas on June 3, 1980. Damge to a house with debris along tornado path. Over a period of just under 3 hours, this storm complex would produce multiple tornadoes in and around the city of Grand Island. Remember the memory of the picture window? A very scarey time. NOAA Weather Radio Dashed line shows 5 mi from the radar site. The Tornadoes of Easter 1913. The neighbors roosters crowed almost all night, their sheep and calves bawled all night, and my hogs were up all night banging lids and grunting. The tornado is the spiral feature SSE of the radar. night of the tornadoes.”, There was wheat that needed to be cut. It sounded like it was directly over the house and comparing it to a freight train wouldn’t have been far off. Most people from Nebraska have vivid memories of the Omaha tornado on May 6, 1975, or the Grand Island tornadoes of June 3, 1980. You’ll have to let me know what you’re up to and how you’re doing and if it’s all you thought it would be. They were there. I borrowed this from Nebraska Weather Photos. Prairie Creek runs along the left side of the photo. The bug zapper had been sitting on the West side of the house very close to the basement window. Click to enlarge. We were fortunate with the storms last night. 500mb analysis shows ridging across the interior U.S., migrating east of the, 700mb analysis shows flow across the Central Plains was southwesterly, with a. A tornado rated as F0 is the least damaging, while an F5 is the most damaging. Join this group to share your memories of the "Night of the Twisters," mourn what was lost, and celebrate the community that rebuilt the city in … The tornado center is the large hole just left of center. It is helpful to see the rebuilding they did! This tornado moved east and northeast over mainly open farmland for just over 13 miles. The animals knew something was coming, just like the dogs you wrote about. Multiple locations were found. I have a great harvest friend in Colby. NWS Enterprise Resources. I remembered the little dishes of cottage cheese with a pineapple ring on top with a cherry in the middle. I’m glad you’re going with them and I wish you all the luck in the world! Submit A Storm Report Regional Weather Summary Local Archived Precip Maps Thread starter Mark Blue; Start date ... an AMS meeting in Omaha where Ted Fujita was the guest speaker and presented a slide show of his investigation of the Grand Island tornadoes. It’s sad to see all that damage but it’s tough times like that that make people stronger. Great story. Grand Island Independent event page: http://gitwisters.com/gitwisters/ I was home with the rest of the family. I was living in Grand island at that time and was stuck in west GI until the twisters quit wind was still a problem as i was waiting for a train in water running board deep when the front end of my car came off the ground. Then on June 3 1980 a tornado hit in Grand Island Nebraska. I remember the tea parties Grandma and I had using her antique dishes (we used instant coffee, of course). Since then, the event has become a book and a … Questions? The fourth tornado, and third and final anti-cyclonic tornado, touched down near Highway 34 and Shady Bend Road. Kearney - Monthly I remember Dad telling me he looked out the window and saw the bug zapper standing so he told Grandpa and Grandma it must not have been too bad. Note the rapid development of the storm between 6-8 p.m. CDT. Formative stages of tornado #5 at 10:16 p.m. No wonderful memories will come from that building ever again. The United States by far has the most tornadoes in the world, averaging 1,274 per year in the last decade while Canada reports nearly 100 annually. When I was first given Hank’s name I searched him online but the only thing I could find was the news story of loosing his two boys. Snowfall Analysis Local Historical Tornado Info Weather Forecast Office. In fact they brought almost two inches of rain in storms Saturday and Sunday. This video is unavailable. I found this in Grandma’s book. There were no cell phones. It is arguably an unparalleled event in meteorological history. She wrote her address on the map where the house is located. K-Mart building on South Locust Street was spared major damage and served as a command post for post-storm operations. Generally, tornado numbers were assigned in the order the tornado occurred, but that is not always the case. I remember coloring Easter eggs. I remember playing “button, button” on the basement steps with my brothers. I remember climbing the cherry tree and picking strawberries in the backyard. The tornadoes only moved at around 8 MPH, giving them plenty of time to be incredibly destructive. This place still holds fond memories…just not the same. Current Area Observations The disaster wiped out whole sections of the city’s southern business district and hundreds of homes. The garage was ripped from the south side of the house, leaving only a partial wall standing. Hopefully – we usually see Hank’s vehicles in the Garden City, KS area. Five people died in the storms and hundreds were injured. Its path was approximately 2.5 miles. Glad to hear you didn’t have bad damage last night from the storms. ð. Were the combines damaged bad? It is arguably an unparalleled event in meteorological history. This is the only known photo of the tornadoes from June 3, 1980. Grand Island - Daily Those in parts of Omaha and further north weren’t so lucky. It’s not a residence – it’s an office for a car lot.  The grain trucks were rounded up and used to haul away debris. This would be looking East. The WSR-57 located at the Grand Island Airport was decommissioned in the mid 1990s, replaced by the new Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D), which remains in service today near Blue Hill, NE. While VIS satellite imagery can show great details in the evolution of clouds, a limitation is the fact it is dependent on sunshine to view. The images below show some of the differences between then and now. The skies were clear, and forecasts called for only a slight chance of thunder showers — a 20 percent probability for Tuesday night. 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