Local Weather History: The Other Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak (In 1920) In Our Region & the Impacts In Our Forecast Area.....

The 1965 Palm Sunday Outbreak was historic; the 1920 one was too with damage in the forecast area, hough we missed the worst of the strong to violent tornadoes just to our northwest, north & east...

At least 37 (likely more) tornadoes struck the Midwest & Great Lakes region in a historic tornado outbreak March 28, 1920. This was the great Palm Sunday Outbreak before the 1965 Palm Sunday Outbreak. Of the 37, 31 were strong to violent tornadoes. Reason for "likely more" wording is that there is evidence that some weaker, short-lived tornadoes that occurred that were just labeled as wind damage. At least 153 people died in the tornadoes & 1215 were injured.

There is evidence to suggest that, like in 1965, 1974, multiple rounds of supercells or a distinct batch of supercells went through the region, followed by a final QLCS squall line. It also bears some resemblance to the November 10, 2002 tornado outbreak, which I allude more to at the bottom of this post.

The other Palm Sunday Outbreak (1965):

There was already severe weather the day before, including an F4 tornado in Arkansas & multiple tornadoes in Missouri.

Like in other big outbreaks (& even the early March 1956 outbreak in the region), a pronounced dry line protruded well to the east. A tremendous drop in the dew points occurred with passage of the QLCS in Illinois & Indiana & skies cleared.

We fared a better than other areas, but wind caused train derailment & plunge of the engine & several cars into a creek & ravine near Lafayette. A chicken house blew over & killed an 8–year old boy south of New Market in Montgomery County. That county was especially hit hard with lots of trees & powerlines downed.

Other wind & hail occurred in the area. It is possible there could have been a few weaker tornado spin-ups, but certainly the strong to violent tornadoes were just northeast, northwest & east of our area.

Tornado track Lowell to Crown Point, Indiana may have extended to far northwestern Newton County. Tornado also hit Porter County with damage near Valparaiso, though there is no available evidence to suggest this track extended back to northern Jasper County.

Wind gusted to 74 mph at St. Louis, 60 mph at Dayton, Ohio, 58 mph at Cincinnati, Ohio & 56 mph at Indianapolis from the storms. Terre Haute measured a gust 54 mph. Toledo, Ohio measured gust of 66 mph, Grand Haven, Michigan 53 mph, Ludington, Michigan 48 mph & 51 mph Springfield, Missouri. Columbia, Missouri gust of 64 mph was measured.

Articles about the outbreak are written in the U.S. Weather Bureau's (precursor to the National Weather Service) Monthly Weather Review (Courtesy of NOAA archives):

Strong to violent tornadoes also struck parts of Alabama & Georgia & northeastern Illinois, specifically the Chicago area:

This was part of a very deep, strong storm system that tracked over the central U.S. Note even at 8 a.m. on March 28, the 60s to central Illinois & the 70 line advecting northward.

Storm reports show the scope of the outbreak:

It has resemblance to the October 24, 2001 tornado outbreak with supercells ahead of a squall line.

Confirmed tornadoes from October 24, 2001 by NWS Northern Indiana meteorologist. Graphic courtesy of NWS Northern Indiana (North Webster).

Radar image of that outbreak from UCAR:

There is also some resemblance to November 2002: