Today marks the grim anniversary of Indiana's deadliest tornado outbreak. Nearly 140 people lost their lives and some 1,200 more injured in 10 tornadoes that ravaged the state on April 11th, 1965.
These were all significant tornadoes with 8 of the 10 twisters in the state being F4 and the other two F3 (this was nearly 40 years before the Enhanced Fujita scale was implemented). Though the outbreak was well forecast...many didn't get the warnings mainly due to either being outside for the holiday, losing electricity/no communication from multiple storms hitting same communities, or simply not having time to seek safety due to the 60-70mph storm speed in this rare meteorological set up.
The "Twin Tornadoes" of Dunlap are a haunting image of the event captured by then Elkhart Truth photographer Paul Huffman. Many of the supercells exhibited long-track tornadoes and/or dual mesocyclones due to extreme wind shear that slowed their typical "cyclic" nature.
In all 47 tornadoes impacted 6 states, claiming 261 lives in a mere 12 hours...marking one of deadliest tornado in modern U.S. history. For comparison sake the April 3-4, 1974 "Super Outbreak" killed 315 in 13 states, the death toll from the April 27-28, 2011 "Super Outbreak" was 340, and the March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado killed 747 dead. May all of those souls continue to rest in peace.
Here is some great reference material from NWS Indianapolis (https://www.weather.gov/ind/palmsuntor), NWS North Webster (http://www.weather.gov/iwx/1965_palmsunday_50) , and US Tornadoes (http://www.ustornadoes.com/2015/04/11/palm-sunday-1965-southern-great-lakes-ravaged-by-one-of-the-worst-tornado-outbreaks-on-record/).
