1919 Fergus Falls tornado

The 1919 Fergus Falls tornado was a large and destructive tornado that struck Fergus Falls, Minnesota on June 22, 1919. It killed 57 people and is the second deadliest tornado in Minnesota's history. This tornado occurred just 10 months after a tornado in Tyler, Minnesota killed 36 people. That twister was Minnesota's fourth deadliest on record.cite web | title = Minnesota Tornado History and Statistics | publisher = Minnesota Climatology Office | date = May 21, 2007 | url = http://climate.umn.edu/doc/historical/tornadic.htm | accessdate = 2007-08-30]

The tornado

The tornado had a path of convert|20|mi|km|0, and at times was convert|400|yd|m|0 wide. It hit Fergus Falls at approximately 4:46 p.m., and according to witness accounts was a "blank funnel shaped twisting cloud, or possibly several of them".cite journal | title = Tornado at Fergus Falls Minnesota, June 22, 1919 | journal = Monthly Weather Review | volume = 47 | issue = 6 | pages = 392–393 | date = June, 1919 | url = http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/047/mwr-047-06-0392.pdf | doi = 10.1175/1520-0493 | accessdate = 2007-08-30 ] Though the Fujita scale did not exist at that time, it is estimated to have been an F5 based on descriptions and photographs of the damage.cite book | last = Seeley | middle = W. | first = Mark | title = Minnesota Weather Almanac | pages = 188-189 | publisher = Minnesota Historical Society press | year = 2006 | id = ISBN 0-87351-554-4]

=Da

The tornado tore through the northern part of town, leveling 44 city blocks (including the business district), destroying 159 homes and damaging 250 more. Of the 57 people that died, at least 35 of them were in the Grand Hotel, a three story, 100 room hotel. Two hundred more were injured. The Otter Tail County courthouse, county jail, four churches and the Northern Pacific rail depot were destroyed. The Great Northern Oriental Limited passenger train was thrown off the tracks by the tornado, but none of the 250 passengers on the train was seriously injured. Checks that were sucked up by the tornado in Fergus Falls were found 60 miles to the east. [cite web | title = Fergus Falls, Minnesota Tornado June 22, 1919 | publisher = gendisasters.com | url = http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/mn/tornadoes/fergusfalls-tornado1919.htm | accessdate = 2007-08-30 ] cite journal | title = Tornado at Fergus Falls Minnesota, June 22, 1919 | journal = Monthly Weather Review | volume = 47 | issue = 6 | pages = 392–393 | date = June, 1919 | url = http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/047/mwr-047-06-0392.pdf | doi = 10.1175/1520-0493 | accessdate = 2007-08-30 ] There is also believed to be jewelery, and a valuable City Bell made out of gold in lake Alice in Fergus Falls that were thrown into the lake by the tornado.fact|date=July 2008

ee also

* 1918 Tyler tornado
* Climate of Minnesota
* List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes
* List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

References

External links

* [http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/mn/tornadoes/fergusfalls-tornado1919.htm Gendisasters.com]