6/19/2007:
Often in the warm summer months, Mother Nature can deliver a violent reminder to those of us in the Upper Great Plains of just how forceful she can be. Summer storms can be as destructive and life threatening as any of our dreaded winter-time blizzards. Of these summer storms, tornados are clearly the most violent and the most dangerous.
North Dakota is prime country for tornados. We’re on the north end of what some call our country’s “tornado alley” that extends south to Texas. In fact, North Dakota ranks nineteenth in the nation for frequency of these killer storms. When our population is figured into the equation, our state ranks third in the ratio of tornadoes to people.
From 1950 to 2004, North Dakota averaged twenty-one reported tornados each year. A few of those years, only two tornados were reported. In 1999 however, there were as many as sixty-five.
Also between 1950 and 1995, there were a total of twenty-four fatalities and 321 injuries in the state caused by tornadoes. During that same time period, over ninety-three million dollars worth of property was damaged or destroyed.
Tornado season for us here in North Dakota can start as early as March, and can extend well into October. Our summer months however are the times when we are most likely to see tornado activity.
It wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that we’ve had tornados in North Dakota that packed some serious punch. The longest track of a tornado, nearly forty-seven miles, occurred in Emmons, McIntosh and Logan counties on May 5, 1964. In Bottineau County on June 26, 1986, a tornado touched down that cut a swath nearly 6000 feet wide.
Tornados have an average forward speed of thirty miles per hour, but can move along as fast as seventy miles per hour. Although tornados can approach from any direction, most track generally from the southwest to the northeast.
Since 1950, Cass County, in eastern North Dakota has earned the dubious distinction of having the most tornados, with sixty-five reported. Coming in a close second during that time was Stutsman County with forty-eight. One of those sixty-five tornados to touch down in Cass County sent shock waves throughout the entire country.
Tomorrow on Dakota Datebook, we’ll hear about the deadly 1957 Fargo tornado.
Written by Dave Seifert.
Sources: The Disaster Center, http://www.disastercenter.com/northdak/tornado.html
National Weather Service, http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bis/ndtornadoes.php