1980 Kalamazoo Tornado

 

This weekend marks the 38th anniversary of the Kalamazoo Tornado. Tuesday, 13 May 1980 was not what many would consider a typical set up for a major tornado. The daily weather records do not go back that far at Kalamazoo but here in Grand Rapids the high on May 13th 1980 was 65° and to the south of Kalamazoo at South Bend the high was 76° at Chicago the high was 68 at Detroit the high was 73° up at Bay City the high was just 55 and in northern Michigan the highs were just in the 40’s so a moderate warm front was in southern lower Michigan that day.
As for the Tornado the first reported touchdown was 8 miles west of Kalamazoo at around 4 PM and moved east into the city and the downtown it was on the ground for about 11 miles it dissipated around 4:25
While only twenty-five minutes had elapsed, the devastation left in the tornado’s 11-mile wake was considerable: five people dead, seventy-nine injured, and over fifty million dollars in total property damage. Homes were leveled in the Westwood residential district, The gymnasium at St. Augustine Elementary School was severely damaged. School had already been dismissed, so most children were at home when the tornado struck.
Here is a video of the storm
[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE7PXGrRup0″ maxwidth=700 ]

 

The 3 chilly saints are right on time this year. With the colder temperatures and rain expected north of the warm front this weekend. While it will be much warmer to our south here in Michigan temperatures  stayed in the 40’s on Friday and only in the 50’s (maybe) on Saturday. The lows on Friday morning were mostly in the mid 20’s in the UP but dropped all the way down to 18° at Doe Lake and 19° at Gwin. No way around it very cold temperatures for May.

Here is some info on the 3 chilly saints.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/may/10/weatherwatch-cold-may-ice-saints

and

https://addins.kwwl.com/blogs/weatherwhys/2010/05/the-three-chilly-saints

I have found some early Michigan weather events that I will post from time to time. Some of the “records” go back to 1780. I will work them in over the next several weeks.

One more note. This May has started out on the warm side and one of our posters has posted this as one of the warmest starts to a May in Grand Rapids history so I guess the game is on.

For anyone who is keeping score on past warm May’s here is the current list of the top 5 warmest Mays at Grand Rapids

1. May 1977 Mean temp of 65.7°
2. May 1896 Mean temp of 65.3°
3. May 1991 Mean temp of 64.6°
4. May 1911 mean temp of 64.1°
5. May 1922 Mean temp of 64.0³

Most of the time the weather pattern changes around every 60 to 90 days. On one of the other weather boards there are several posters who follow the pattern trends (there are also meteorologist who believe it such trends) anyway the posters on this blog believe that this year the pattern has been changing ever 30 to 40 days so that would mean that there could be several changes this summer with this warm May turning into a cool June. We shall see.

 

Happy Mothers day to all of the moms

Slim