MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW MAY, 1931
TORNADO STRIKES SWIFTLY-MOVING TRAIN
By R. J. MCCLURQ
[weather Bureau, Moorhead, Minn.1
The crack train, Empire Builder, keattle, Wash., to Chicago, Ill:, May 27, 1931, was struck by a tornado nearly at a right angle as it was speeding at nearly a mile a minute about 5 miles east of Moor- head, Minn. The locomotive weighing 136 tons and the tender 94 tons, remained.on the track. The engineer reports the cab win- dows as being torn out and that his goggles were blown away. Mr. McClurg’s report follows.-ED.
A destructive tornado passed over part of estreme western Minnesota May 27, 1931, beginning about 4:15
p. m. The funnel-shaped cloud was first seen by farmers rn the north part of Kurta townshi about 10 miles south-
traveled an east-northeaster1 course from first observa-
mile northwest of Ruthruff siding, where it wrecked “The Empire Builder” a t about 4:30 p. m. No observer
can be found that knows the exact time this storni struck the train. From this point onward it took a north-north- easterly course for about 40 miles, where it destroyed everything in its path when it touched the ground. A t
times it lifted from the ground for several miles, only to swoop down to the ground again and carry on its destruc- tive work. It evidently blew itself out between Gaiy and Fertile, Minn. It seems to be impossible to find anyone who knows a t what time it was last seen. But it
must have been traveling very rapidly for everyone who saw it spoke about its rapid movement. The tornado never came nearer than 4 miles to the United States Weather Bureau statmion at Moorhead. The morning weather niap of May 27 shows that Moorhead lay in a trough of low pressure, the center of which was over southeastern South Dakota. At the Moorhead station t’he following atniospheric condit,ions were recorded :
The barograph showed the air pressure was very e r r a h from 1:30 a. m., with a reading of 25.74 inches, until 2:OO p. ni. a t which time the reading was 28.64 inches. The
pressure then fell rapidly to 38.47 inches by 4:30 p. m., then remained almost constant to 5:15 p. m. I t then
rose rapidly until 5:30 p. m., a,fter which the rise was niore Light rain began to fall at 4:04 p. ni. with a
Eradua1 eavy downpour from 4: 16 p. m. to 4:37 p. m. Soft hail fell with the rain for 6 minutes. The total precipitation was 0.31 inch. The sun shone intermittently from 4:41 for the remainder of the evening. The wind velocity was from 6 to 13 miles nn hour from 4 p. m. to 5: 16 p. ni., and was recorded at least once from t,he eight point,s of tlie compass. From 5:12 p. ni. a southwest wind was increasing steadily, when at 5:30 p. m. it suddenly shifted to the northwest and reached a velocity of 33
miles an hour for 5 minutes. One mile was recorded at
the rate of 38 miles per hour. The wind decreased
steadily after 5:35 p. m. Despite the untold damage done by this tornado of gigantic power, the marvelous thing about it is that only two lives were lost. When one car of the famed “Empire Builder” with its 117 passengers was lifted from the rails and carried t,hrough the air to be laid in a ditch SO feet away, one man was hurled through a window and crushed beneath the coach when it fell on him. The ot,her death resulted when a farm youth w8.s pinned beneath the wreckage of his home and crushed to death. The greatest manifestation of the force of this stoiin was shown by the wrecking of the train. Without a doubt, five of the coac.hes were torn loose from tlie engine and lifted bodily from the rails, the farthest one being hurled 80 feet away. The remaining eight coaches were
southeast of the Moorhead Weat K er Bureau Office. It
tion, crossing the Great Nort E ern Railway track one-half
.
probably pulled from the rails. The engine and tender
remained on the rails intact. Fifty-seven passengers were injured by the impact and flying glass. It was due
only to the fact that the heavy steel coaches were strong enough to resist the crash that more lives were not lost. According to available reports, only 3 houses, 1 church, and 1 schoolhouse were demolished. The remainder of
the damage was to other farm buildings, machinery, live- stock, and trees. On a tour of a portion of tlie path of t,he tornado the writer observed the usual freakish actions of the storm. At the Hatledal farm where one of the deaths took place tlie Iamily are positive that two separate storms occurred. The first twister coming from the southwest destroyed the home, pinning Melvin Hatledal beneath a cement block in the southeast corner of the basement. After this twister passed on, the family escaped from the basement to the yard. In ‘ust a few minutes they observed a second twister, pel I owish in color, approaching from the northwest. They expected it to strike them any second, but it veered to the east, just before it reached them and wrecked a barn about 250 yards distant. At the Fred Kudebeh farm a mile or so northwest of the Hatledal farni, Mr. Kudebeh WLS standing in his barn door watching the main twister passing nbout 200 ards to the east of him. All a t once his own barn was efted into the air leaving him standing unharmed. The barn was carried almost due west straight toward the farm- house. One wall landed on the north side of the house, one wall on the south side, and one end on the east side of the house. The other end of the barn fell just a few feet west from the foundation. But the roof was carried over the house, through the tops of a grove of trees, some of which were 50 feet high, and fell in a field fully 200
Yet the iouse was not touched, escept one corner of the porch which was struck by a flying timber. The ma.in twister traveling due north at the time struck the Hanson farm where absolutely everything was demol- ished. House, barns, machine sheds, farm implements, dead Rnimals and poidtiy were scattered all over the countryside. Farm implements of heavy iron and steel were twisted beyond recognition. Thirteen almost
featherless chickens remained from a flock of 300. Trees were denuded of their limbs and leaves. The wreckage was carried to the northwest, while at another farm only
about 300 yards west, wreckage waa carried to the southeast. The writer saw straws driven into the bark of trees and a t one place, saw a fresh straw driven in the wall of a
house. At one place it was reported that a lace curtain was blown between the pane of glass and the sash with the glass remaining unbroken. A conservative estimate of the damage was placed at
$200,000. Growing crops not damaged very much where the storm did the damage to buildings, but re orts from the higher lands to the southeast, where the soi P is lighter, state that many fields will be reseeded because the wind blew away the planted crops. The smaller picture of the two (fig. 1) was taken a few hours after the storm from the end of the fourth
coach from the rear of the train. Eight coaches between the coach in the front of the picture and the engine in the background are lying in a ditc.h to the left of the picture. The aerial view was taken after the wrecker had placed two of the coaches back on the track.
ards from where the barn originally stood.
M. W. R.. May, 1931
I
(To face p. 198)
b
Phoh furnubed t h r a l ~b oourtesy of Mr. Hoops. Cits Editor. Fano Forum
FIGUBE. I.-Upper, taken from end of fourth coach from rear of train; eight coaches are lying in 8 ditch to the left; lower, an aerial view of the wrecked cm after the wrecker had put two cars back on track
MAY, 1931 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 199
SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT BY R. J . M’CLURG
I had a conversation with the engineer, Mr. McKee, and the fireman, Mr. Klinfihn, these men gave an account of their observation of the tornado.
Mr. Klinfihn observed the storm at a distance, but did not see the funnel cloud. At the time the train was
struck, he wa8 busy a t his work firing and was completely unaware of the impending disaster.
Mr. McKee, the engineer, first noticed the storm a mile or so away in the southwest, but did not see a funnel at that time. The train was traveling toward the southeast.
He had seen many worse looking storms and did not give it much attention a t first. The storm did not seem to move at all for several minutes, then moved slowly toward the train until it was about one-half mile away. It was then he noticed the funnel cloud and saw it take the top off a straw stack. The twister then darted forward and before he realized it was coming it had struck the train a t almost right angles.
Mr. McKee thought the full force of the storm struck the engrne; but due to the immense weight of the engine and the round shape, the engine and loaded tender were left standing on the rails. The remainder of the train of
12 coaches was derailed. Mr. McKee’s glasses w-ere pulled from his face by a force that he described as “a suction at his body. )’ The fact that the coupling between
the engine and the mail car was unbroken and still closed and locked after the wreck indicates that the front end of the mail car wTas lifted directly upward, permitting the coupling to separate without breaking. All the 12
cars remained coupled to each other, but some of the
couplings were badly twisted by the derailment. All but one of the cars fell on their sides. This one exception was
a car caught between two coaches and could not fall over. On page 2 of my report of June 2 , 1931, I stated that five coaches were lifted from the tracks and the other 8 were pulled from it. I t should read “Five coaches were lifted from the tracks and the other 7 were pulled from the track.” The conductor stated that practically all of the windows of the coaches were closed because a light rain was falling; the car ventilators were open. The greater number of the windows were not broken by the sudden lessening of the outside pressure. They had to be broken by trainmen and others to let the imprisoned passengers escape. Thefollowingisalist of theweightsof thecars andengine: