My late father worked as a darkroom tech for the Elkhart Truth back in those days. He was the one who developed and printed those photos of the Midway twin funnels photographed by photographer Paul Hoffman. In all likelihood, dad was the first to lay eyes on those images. I’ve always been very proud of his role in history.
@reginaphalange30 , There is a restaurant in Russiaville,Indiana that has that photo on one of its walls. Those twin tornados leveled Russiaville parts of Kokomo and Greentown. About 10 years ago, a tornado hit a Starbucks in Kokomo off of US 31. One of my bf recorded it off an overpass as it was destroying stuff. He said he had a clear view and blue sky's while recording.
I rode that storm out in Alto, Indiana. Will never forget the sound, the smell, the devistation of that evening. We had one of the few standing houses and several gathered there to await help and what was to happen next. Tornados are amazing in some of the things they do; in our back yard we found a washer & dryer setting side by side, like you could start laundry like any other day. There was a fishing boat, still had the motor on the back and very little damage, the most amazing thing was there a rod & takle box setting in it like it had never moved. They found the owner; it had traveled almost 30 miles. When we finally, very late that night, left to go to a safe place my dad's car was almost out of gas, he found a tanker truck and asked the guy if he could buy some gas. The guy told him the gas was for emergancy personel and not rubberneckers. My dad showed him the two broke windows in the car and told him where we were coming from. We got a full tank of gas and told he hoped everything worked out for us. Took us six months to rebuild, I stayed the summer at my grandparents farm in eastern Indiana, watched another tornado miss the farm by half a mile. Wasn't one of my favorite years.
Call that lucky? my mom survived a electric + on fire tornado back then when she was for some reason 9 month pregnant and that baby was ME bro and the fact that I’m still alive is also crazy that I was in HER belly while she was pregnant and yet she survived it and this only happened in Australia so it’s very rare for it in Australia you could even ask my mom this and she would say yes it’s true bro
As someone who went through this outbreak, it will never be forgotten. We lived in Russiaville, Howard County. We lost three souls . It still hurts to think about that day.
I was 12 years old when the tornado hit Comstock park , Michigan! My Dad was sleeping due to shift he worked, the sky turned a yellow greenish color, my mom went upstairs woke my Dad up, and he looked at sky and said. Get your asses in basement now! We had National Guard around and the damage was great! We however had no damage,our neighbors garage however was in our backyard
I live in Northeast Indiana. I will never forget that night. I stood in the front yard with my dad and neighbors. Our neighbor pointed up and said “Kids go in the house, those are tornadoes.” We were spared in our locality but later we drove to the area and I saw the damage they did north of us and in Michigan. I was eight years old and I can still remember it like it was yesterday.
11:14 that thing could of covered my town Easily. 2 miles wide is 3.2 kilometers and my town is 1.4 kilometers which is. 0.86 miles.if my town has grown Head to Google Maps and find Blackfallds Alberta Canada
Finally someone who mentions this outbreak! It was insane how tornadoes go forgotten so fast. Thank you for making this awesome video! I really enjoyed it!
I wish I could know about every tornado/see at least one image of them all, but I know it's impossible, as there are at the least 100,000 tornadoes on record from all over the world. 😅😂😊
@@hellhound1389 On farms it was very common to have "root cellars" for storing veggies or home canned food in a cooler place. They also doubled as storm shelters. By the time I was paying attention (60's) to how they were constructed most of their wooden doors were dubious from rot. Better than being in a house or hugging the ground surface. As I recall most had walls made of stone, secured in place with concrete filler and further stabilized a concrete roof cap and dirt packed onto the outside walls. Never heard of anyone getting killed or hurt in one. Although I'd very concerned how they'd handle the monsters that can come to visit.
@@Baltic_Hammer6162 In the Detroit area we had Virgin Mary statues in the yard and they would bury palms from last year's Palm Sunday in the shrubs on the SW corner of the house. That was considered tornado prevention.
I know tornadoes were a concern in the "old days" (1890 -1940) out on the prairie. I say that based on the number of "root cellars" which doubled as storm shelters.
Yeah but how long after that outbreak did it take to see similar. I was 5 in SW Michigan when it happened; it may an indelible impression on me. So growing up I was always waiting for another such outbreak. Nothing like that ever happened again, save, for a loner that hit downtown Kalamazoo in the early 80s
This is, without a doubt, the best analysis of the Palm Sunday tornadoes that I have ever seen. Thank you for taking the time to produce such an informative documentary.
Glad you enjoyed it! It took almost 3 months to dig up all the information and trace all the tornado paths. By far the most work I’ve ever put into a single project.
At least three originally received F5 ratings from Fujita/DAPPL: the second Elkhart-Dunlap tornado, the Lebanon-Sheridan tornado and the Pittsfield-Strongsville tornado. The other two I can see receiving F5 ratings are the Russiaville-southern Kokomo tornado and the first of the two southern Michigan wedge tornadoes. Personally? I'd say all five of the ones I mentioned were of F5 intensity/did F5 damage. For example, the photos from Dunlap, southern Kokomo and Pittsfield were so shocking to me that I immediately said they warranted an F5 rating.
I am 69 but I still remember where I was and what I did on this day. This outbreak missed South Bend IN but it destroyed everything around us. When I say nothing was left I mean nothing
I was 12 y.o. and living in Onsted, Michigan. Two tornados hit our farm, several minutes apart. I will never forget the scream of the eves troughs. We lost farm buildings but kept the house. All of the chickens were killed. The neighbor's dairy cows were lost.
I was a little boy of 4 and I have a few memories of that day. We lived Speedway Indiana on the Westside of Indianapolis. Dad was working that day on the engine test stands at Allison's. I remember Mom listening to the AM radio, maybe the power was out. I remember her putting some things in the basement - probably flashlights and heavy blankets to cover ourselves with, and I clearly remembered her telling me, "If I tell you to go, you get to the basement corner and cover up... and SCOOT!" That's all I remember from almost 60 years ago but it made an impression. Thank you for this detailed history and photos of that day. I think the weather was rough for us but the closest tornado was the one hitting Lebanon. If course when you're living through it, you don't know if you'll be next. Severe weather warning is so much better today - lessons learned and technologies advanced so much from these past tragedies.
It was never forgotten by the many who experienced this violent outbreak first-hand and survived to tell their stories. My mother is one of them and she has vivid memories of the southern Michigan portion mentioned in this video, where multiple tornadoes hit the same places within a very short period of time. She has described in detail the horrific scene countless times during the many decades since. Thank you for sharing this brief summary of the highlights.
@@windycityliz7711 Toledo used to be a real tornado magnet (like Kokomo and any place within 30 miles of Elkhart). My dad used to tell us kids we'll never get hit by a tornado in Detroit because Toledo and Flint "catch them" (whatever that was supposed to mean) ..and we believed it.
@@mikezylstra7514 I grew up in Southern Illinois, where we took tornadoes for granted. Years later I ended up in SE Michigan (Wayne Co.) and NE Ohio (Lucas Co) and was shocked at how many times I had to head for the basement.
Thank you for this very well made video. I was attending Friends Boarding School near Barnesville, Ohio when that storm struck. We were east of the areas where the tornadoes hit, but although the storm had weakened by the time it got to us, it was still strong enough to leave an impression that I can never forget. I can remember how beautiful Palm Sunday 1965 was during the day. But in the middle of the night, we heard the sound of a tremendous wind coming towards us. When it hit the dormitory, the building shook and suddenly there was lightning that was continuous. The wind was so high that you didn’t hear the thunder. Rain was falling in sheets. Everyone was nervous in the morning, and then we got the news that the Midwest had experienced its second worst tornado disaster, with Ohio hit hard.
i live down south. a few days ago i heard (and saw) continuous lightning just like the lightning you described during a tornado warning. does that mean a tornado could've hit us?
Not necessarily. Continuous lightning would be associated with a strong storm that may or may not have a tornado. We did not have a tornado where we were, at Barnesville , Ohio the night of Palm Sunday 1965. Barnesville is close to the border with West Virginia, well east of the area that saw devastating tornadoes😮. However, although the storm did not produce a tornado near us, it was still strong enough that any of us who experienced it can never forget it. I have never seen lightning like what I saw with that storm since.
Yep. My sisters and I were home by ourselves that afternoon/evening, as our parents had gone 20 miles away to visit relatives. We didn’t know enough to go to the basement, but luckily the 2 tornadoes that struck Manitou Beach passed about 1/2 to 1 mile away from us. Will never forget that night and seeing all the damage a few days later-I had scary dreams about tornadoes for many years afterward.
I've been doing a fair amount of small-scale research in regards to this outbreak it's a real shame it's overshadowed by 1974 and 2011 because this outbreak is just simply insane. Excellent video showcasing the paths and meteorological processes of this event because this one was a once in a generation level event.
@@-.__328 honestly? We don't fully know. What we do know is if there's an unusually pronounced elevated mixed layer over the Great Lakes, that it's extremely bad news. It's happened on April 3, 1956 (last F5 to hit Michigan), April 11, 1965 (Palm Sunday Super Outbreak) and April 3, 1974 (1974 Super Outbreak): each time was a historic and notable outbreak in the Great Lakes region for different reasons.
@@-.__328 not very often. I have the Grazulis book and this outbreak was only even approached in intensity by that outbreak in the 1930's that hit Mississippi, and Georgia.and possibly the Feb 19 outbreak in the 1880's(?) (Tennessee and surrounding states; "mapped out" by somebody but people in those days thought if a barn collapsed in a gale it was automatically a tornado). And, btw, Grazulis' account of this outbreak is pretty weak - many events shown here are absent from his account of this outbreak.
My mom survived this event. My mom grew up in Arcadia, Indiana. She and her two younger brothers were in their home when the entire house was ripped off of the foundation and thrown across the road by a tornado. She was 11. She and my uncles were in the process of going down into the basement when it happened. One of my uncles lost his front teeth to debris and had false front teeth for the rest of his life. A tree fell into the basement and just missed my mom; shelves of glass jars of preserved food fell and smashed all around her but she only had minor scrapes. Neither of my uncle's made it into the basement, but aside from one of them loosing his top four front teeth they were uninjured. My grandfather worked at the local hospital and later told that local veterinarians had even some in to stitch the most minor lacerations because the hospital was so inundated with injuries. I don't know if that's true, but i've also no reason to doubt it.
I think it could also be because of the passage of time 🤔 considering it happened in the 60s I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people forgot about it/haven’t heard of it
Many Amish-Mennonite farms were devastated that day. The Mennonite Disaster Service grew out of the Palm Sunday tornadoes and for several generations they were one of the first to arrive at tornado and other disaster areas to provide aid.
My mother lived though this outbreak. It is rarely covered by these tornado channels and it shame as few people realize just how devastate it was. I am glad to see someone cover it in such detail.
I live in one of the towns mentioned in the video and our community (specifically the people that have lived here for a long time) hasn't forgotten about it. I think about this outbreak whenever we get a tornado warning as a reminder that it happened here once and it could happen again.
Live in Sheridan Indiana... Was a little kid then, grew up hearing many stories. I can tell you, it is still talked about today. One story is wind speed so great, it drove straw into trunks of trees. Many others i won't mention.
It's been reanalyzed recently that the "twin funnels" was more likely two tornadoes rather than a multiple-vortex tornado; similar in process to but more impressive visually than the Hesston-Goessel, Kansas twin F5s from March 13, 1990.
There's a billboard on US 33 advertising Arab Pest Control ("See a bug? Call Arab") in one of those pics - it was still there in 1988.Traveling up that stretch of US 33 always gave me the willies because of those pics.
Celton, I have to say man, you have an incredible talent making these videos. Everything about them - the quality, your narration, the content, the pace - feels and looks like professional documentaries. I really look forward to each video you post. ❤
My dad was in High School at the time. Lived in Hillsdale about 2 miles north of where the two F4s tracked in southern Michigan. Thing he remembers about that day is the color of the sky before the storms - was a weird tan / peach color all afternoon. Was completely unaware there were tornadoes until the next day but remembers being able to go out into the woods behind their farm and find debris scattered in the trees.
Thank you for the video! I live in Lima, near Elida Ohio, and my parents who lived in nearby Delphos at the time, had their car pushed off the road. My mom was pregnant with my oldest brother at the time and didn't find.out until the next morning from my Grandmother. If they would've been hit by the tornado I might not be here (I was born in 1971). It just missed a small town north of Lima , Cairo where my step Grandparents lived if it had hit Cairo it would have been most likely destroyed and many more killed. 13 died a mom, dad and their 2 kids when their car was flipped into a water filled ditch and drowned. A member of my church lost his Great Grandparents in this storm
I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was 5 years old. I'll never forget when it hit northwestern Ohio. These storms gave a whole different meaning to the words "Palm Sunday." This day was what brought the National Weather Service to put up tornado sirens to warn the public.
I was 9 years old on Palm Sunday 1965, living in Kalamazoo, MI. It was my First Communion Day. I will never forget how beautiful the day started out. And then--how the storms rolled in without any warning, how the sky was a sickly mud-yellow to the northwest, boiling black clouds relentlessly pouring up from the southwest. We were outside watching when my Dad shouted that a funnel cloud was going over the house and we should all get in the basement NOW! Thankfully it did not touch down but I believe it may have been the one that hit Cooper Township in Kalamazoo County. After that I became obsessed with tornadoes. I have taken Skywarn training multiple times, when severe weather threatens, or even when it doesn't, I am always weather aware and watching the sky. Lately we have had a couple of tornadoes here in Michigan that literally were under the radar on days where there was not supposed to be any tornadoes; one killed a little kid in Livonia. My philosophy is: I do not care what the SPC says--if there are thunderstorms there is a potential for tornadoes and no tornado is ever going to catch me unaware. I am so glad that our warning systems are so much better than in 1965 and I say there is no excuse for people not being aware that the weather could turn dangerous.
We drove to Russsiaville [pronounced Roosh’ a ville] and Alto. We lived in Elwood, In at the time, just south of where the destruction was. Several funnels went over us, but never touchdown. Russiaville was simply gone the next day, as was Alto.we had an aunt in R’ville but she was in Anderson, In that night. We took her home the next day and it was gone, just a few of the cinderblocks of the foundation left. We were all stunned at the destruction. She was certain she would have been killed had she been home. We looked awhile but never recovered any of her personal possessions.
I was born and raised in NW Indiana; lived there practically all my life. Growing up these storms were talked about every year around palm sunday. Their lasting terror crept through during the 2011 super outbreak, as murmurs spread, praying nothing would be as bad as that palm sunday. There are older adults here who have stories never told on videos like these (which, how could they, there are so many).
Great work on this video. The Palm Sunday Outbreak definitely needs more recognition, given its infamy and the fact that it seems to have been overshadowed by more recent such outbreaks such as the 1974 and 2011 Super Outbreaks.
Wow. Thank you for this. I was almost eight when this happened and lived in the area affected and still do. I get jittery during bad weather. It got so green just before the twisters hit. There are still trees around that show that characteristic tornado damage.
Those dark green ugly boiling clouds coming from the west, always made me hyper alert. I guess I viewed them as nature's way of warning on something really dangerous coming.
Living on the northeast side of Goshen. In., I watched as one tornado made its way to Shipshewana. Just before that, we observed ducks flying backwards over our roof. After it was all over, my husband and my father joined the rescue attempts. They were traumatized by the absolute horror of it all. Needless to say, our community panicked for years when a warning siren went off.
Same here. I never saw a lot of this content neither in the (Detroit) newspapers or on the TV. news They concentrated on the Manitou Beach and Toledo tornadoes - where only the "Lost Peninsula" part of the Toledo tornado (where it entered Lake Erie) was mentioned. We never knew about the path through Toledo itself. Little else of this event was ever reported. I guess if it was beyond an hour's drive, it never made it to the news.
I’ve lived in northern Indiana my entire life (born in Elkhart, currently residing in South Bend), & I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this. Mother Nature is absolutely insane. Now i understand why my dad has always been so terrified of tornadoes. Any time there was a mention of a tornado, my dad would always rush everyone into the basement.
My dad was in the Palm Sunday 1965 outbreak, specifically the one that began in Roll, In. He was in southern Wells county at the time visiting a friend, and he said when he went home, he had seen straw sticking through telephone poles.
Wow! This is now my favorite tornado outbreak, next to the 2011 Super Outbreak. Thanks for going into detail about this outbreak especially since it's so underrated!
I was 9 years old at the time of this outbreak. We lived in Dearborn Heights, MI. I remember the day being stormy, and severe T-storm warnings and tornado watches were being broadcast on TV. I had friends over, and we were playing in the new 2 and a half car garage that had just been built. The storm was getting worse, and my mom called out to us to come in and play in the basement. Shortly after, my dad and I drove my friends home. We didn't have a tornado that day though. Just some sightings of funnel clouds. My now deceased husband was born 8 days after the outbreak on April 19, 1965. (Jan Griffiths).
I remember that day . We lived in Michigan and it was a beautiful day . My parents made us go into the tornado shelter . It was a cement block structure built underground with a metal roof . Luckily nothing happened . I remember asking , why we had to go down there because it was so nice out . The tornado did hit towns close to us though .
I remember the weird yellow sky, in Middlebury. My husband's family lived in the Sunnyside neighborhood, direct hit from the Dunlap tornado. He was a tiny baby and was badly injured. His brother and dad slightly injured. The house blew away. His Mom was at work. She knew there were bad storms and tornados but not how bad. She told me once that when she got off work and went home. She had to park her car and walk due to the debris. She didn't realize she had walked through her own neighborhood and past the site of her house until she got to her Mom's house farther down the same road and just beyond the tornado's range. Scary image. Of course panicked about her family. My Dad was very lucky. He'd gone to Elkhart to help my Grandma do her taxes, and was driving home down US 20. Close to intersection with SR 15, he's passed by a car doing 90. Dad said that driver could see the tornado, it was in Dad's blind spot. A little restaurant at that intersection was destroyed, broken clock indicating exact time, Dad said about 4 min after he drove through. But he made it home ok. You could see damage, especially in the woods for decades. Our local Civil Defense morphed into storm watchers after that.
Very well done video. This one indeed has been forgotten. I don’t know why because it’s right there with ‘74 and 2011. This video was needed to remind ppl. Thank you
Yes, that was a sad day. I was only 2 1/2 years old, but with the severity of the moment from my parents and family, I remember my mother carrying me to the basement of family where we were having palm Sunday dinner. We lived at coldwater Lake, and luckily, we were northeast of our home and didn't suffer a direct hit. The first tornado, my father, stayed upstairs, but the second one, he came rushing to the basement when he said it was fine until the noodles started slapping him in the face. Unfortunately, our home was mostly destroyed, and a neighbor swore he saw the water sucked off the bottom of the lake in the first tornado.
WOW. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Grew up hearing stories of the Palm Sunday tornadoes in Michigan.But these all are tornadoes.I never heard of and i am floored. Thank You for telling us these stories.
@@itsjustme7487 I remember that. That wasn't on Palm Sunday - I think it was April 2nd (a Monday?). Comstock Park seems to get hit by tornadoes for every little excuse - kinda like Flint.
I have done extensive amateur study over this day because the picture of the twins fascinated me in a scary way the moment I saw it. This is the best video I’ve seen made over this forgotten day. Thank you!!
My mother, an Indiana born and raised girl, was only 7 years old when this happened and was staying at a family member's house when one of these tornadoes touched down. She and her family were nearly hit directly by it, but the funnel didn't touch down until after it had passed from overhead them.
I grew up in Frankfort. Just north off 75 is a town called Moran. Palm Sunday turned it into just a small neighborhood. But it once was a full sized tiny town. Theater, gas station, stores. Wiped clean off the map. They made every remaining house totndao shelters. All but two remain as many filled them in for being a "eyesore". My husband's parents have one of the remaining two left and have used it. Palm Sunday reminds people in my hometown that believe a tornado would never hit Frankfort a lie.
To my knowledge there are no actual videos of these tornadoes that exist, the footage you see used was footage I captured a few weeks ago in Nebraska near the town of Elkhorn during a storm chase that I used as b roll and edited to make it look old. Looking back I probably should have included a disclaimer in the video for that but I kinda just assumed people would realize that given the high video quality of the tornado, oh well, the things you only realize after you release a video I guess lol.
@@CeltonHenderson Ah, thanks for the clarification. I knew the pics looked familiar. I had seen your videos from Elkhorn and was stunned by this 'ballet'. Great work.👍🏼
Michigan is not usually a state that leaps into our minds as tornado prone state. For me its Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa. However I grew up in the central US so that narrows my view. Thanks to the internet storm channels I have since broadened my view drastically. Ohio River Valley seems like a corridor of tornado magnets.
@@Baltic_Hammer6162Exactly! Here in Michigan we get an average of 15 tornadoes a year. Well this year, we have already had 14. This will be an insane year, especially this summer!
@@stormchaserblaynelinzner It's weird how the storms are tracking this year. I live in koskiusko county and we have had zero real thunderstorms so far. We usually get slammed all the time.
Can you say the state the towns are in? Maybe define the maps better. Still, a great video. I am a local to the Elkhart area and to this day, they still talk about it. Most of the old timers have gone, but the ones who were young adults or children remember. I have talked to many, many survivors of them. My parents and grandparents had the farms north of the Indiana state line in Cass County. Sunday Dinner. The view south was a wall of black clouds. It was obvious something was happening. They got the edges of weather. Thye told me the animals were very nervous. Farmers just listen to nature. Both sets of Grandparents were set. The radio and short wave was full of news of the tornadoes. So, they were watching. Thye had black clouds to the north and south they told me. There is a small memorial for the people that died in in the tornados that hit the Dunlop/Elkhart County subdivisions that were north of the Midway Trailer Park, near the former Concord Mall. Its small private corner but worth seeing. It is sad. I go there sometimes to pick up sticks and tidy up the grass. Before all the old timers are gone, listen to the stories. Great vid. Thank you.
Many thanks for your coverage of this important event. I grew up in northern Indiana and the Palm Sunday tornadoes were never forgotten. Folks there always take warnings and watches seriously and I've carried that caution forward ever since.
People just don’t understand the cycles of the earth. Every 50-100 thousand years we go through a cycle and the earth either heats up or freezes. The last time this cycle flipped was 12,000 years ago when the ice age ended, so next time it happens we will be in another ice age. People have no clue that we are in what’s considered the golden age of weather because the temperature has stayed relatively steady for the past 2000 years for the first time ever. Once this stability ends the whole idea of climate change will not matter because then people will finally understand there’s nothing we can do to help or stop the earths unstable weather patterns. We are just lucky to live during this time
That's something I could not even imagine. Getting hit by a violent tornado just to have another come right behind it. Not giving survivors a chance to get away. It's absolutely mind boggling. Thankfully it is not something that happens with each storm season. How this outbreak is not talked about is crazy, just for that reason alone.
Growing up in Indiana, I often heard tales of the “Palm Sunday Tornadoes”. I had a great aunt who survived by lying in her bathtub as her home crashed around her. She also told of neighbors who were thrown out of their home into a field and survived. Thanks to this video I now have a better understanding of why this was such a significant event.
Palm sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 was a destructive and deadly one 271 lives taken and those twin funnels picture is perhaps the most amazing capture ever
I've not forgotten, and this came 21 years before me. I attended Skywarn in Centerville, MI this past March, and I introduced myself to a lady officer and cautioned that we are long overdue. This last May 7, a tornado touched down in Centerville and travelled all the way to Sherwood. EF2 Multivortex. Branch County got three tornadoes this day. The big one is yet to come, like the double F4's that hit my former and current home areas of Branch and Hillsdale Counties.
Another righteously told case history! I loved hearing parts of the soundtrack from the Plainfield case study. In Alto, Indiana the tornado was caught on audio as it tore through a church. The audio is available here on UA-cam if anyone fancies a listen. It's possible to hear the bell ring as the tornado rips the steeple off the building. As far as I know, no one died at that church...but don't quote me on that!
I was in grade school and remember that day. We lived in Toledo then. I recall speaking about tornados earlier that day with a friend. A tornado went over our home! There were 4 of us kids at that time, my dad was at work, and my mom and us huddled in the hallway of our small brick ranch home. I remember the windows breaking and the curtains blowing in with hail. A shopping center was struck close to our home.
Excellent video! I was 10 living in Bridgeport, Michigan. While we did not have a tornado the image of the green undulating sky as one storm rolled in well never leave my memory. Still give me chills! Again, just excellent!
Great video, the two supercells and tornadoes following similar paths in Southern MI is just ridiculous. I never knew the first tornado was so wide either. I could only imagine seeing this outbreak with modern day radar and video.
The Branch county Michigan tornadoes were by far the most fascinating for me to read about when I was doing the research for this video, this outbreak is a rabbit hole that goes deeper the closer you look. I could make like 10 different videos on it.
@@CeltonHenderson In my book, that was an epic event. One tornadic storm following another by (was it?) like, 40 minutes? Overlapping tracks at some points.
Extremely well-researched and engaging presentation. This is THE definitive guide to the Palm Sunday '65 tornado outbreak, particularly regarding the evolution and characteristics of the most significant individual tornadoes. I notice that some tornado cycles produce new storms some distance away, up to 5 miles, while in other cases the new tornado is literally right on the heals of the old one with no break in the path. As an aside, this phenomenon makes me think that the case for a continuous track on the March, 1925 Tri-State tornado is rather shaky. In fact, some observers saw the storm that later hit DeSoto and Murphy "split into two" just as it reached the Illinois border. This suggests it did cycle at least once, so I personally do not believe the idea that the Tri-State tornado path length was in excess of 200 miles.
I think the supercell path from near Lafayette Indiana to Cleveland is probably equivalent to the tristate. It moved about 55 - 60 mph. There is no documentation of a single tornado in the tristate - rural, and rain shrouded over much of its path..And apparently just as discontinuous.
Born in 1967, I grew up about 5 miles from where the famous twins picture was taken. I lived in one of the few houses in my neighborhood with a basement. I remember being little, and having "tornado parties". Too young to realize that people were terrified, it was just all these people showing up and wanting in our basement, to me. I've heard so many stories over the years about that day. My dad witnessed the Sunnyside tornado as him and one of his friends were on the way to Midway trailer park, to help with taking people to hospitals. I have had a lifelong interest in tornadoes. Even have a tornado tattoo with "Finger Of God" inked around it. "Terrible Beauty" is how I think of them. Fascinating, but deadly and destructive. Thanks for a great video. A tally of the casualties, estimated monetary damages, and combined lengths of tracks would have been interesting too.
TYVM for the work you've done on this report. This is the most informative report I have ever found concerning Palm Sunday 1965. I believe I was 8 years old at this time. I was in the Wanatah, IN tornado. We had just moved to Indiana from Massachusetts. My mother knew very little about tornados and left myself and three siblings in the car while she went into a little restaurant to call my dad. While she was gone, we watched a tornado pass across the street (Route 30?) pick up the barn in the property immediately east of us, and break it down into tiny pieces of wood. I was terrified and developed a phobia for storms that lasted for decades. To this day, it is the most evil thing I have ever seen. My parents protected us from many real-life tragedies and I knew very little else about this outbreak. I'd search it from time to time, but when it was mentioned, it was more of an after thought or an 'also ran.' I am keeping this for my family history, Thank you so much. I had no idea how terrible that day really was.
The twin tornado photo shown was taken in Dunlop, Indiana.. a small community between Goshen & Elkhart, Indiana.. I was only 2 years of age & approximately 5 miles s.w of impact.. Ill never forget that day or the damage left at only 2 years of age & now in my sixtys..
Here in uk we are so lucky we dont have to deal with these i really feel for you all must be so scary and all that damage and loss of life this was really well done thankyou for the insight of what you have to deal with
Very interesting video of severe weather history. I was only a little over a year old so I don't recall this. I don't even remember the tornado that hit our town in NE Arkansas in 1968...I have a slight memory of fear and being put in our sunken bath tub with the small mattress from my bed placed over me. I was terrified of storms as a child. Still am, but I love watching weather streams and storm chasers. The town I'm from has been hit several times by devastating tornadoes. In 1972 it destroyed all of our lives, it was so horrible to walk through my best friend's neighborhood looking for their belongings...seeing things and death that I will never be able to erase. Poor folks...
Amazing video! I mean that. Very good job covering everything that was happening simultaneously was chaos in sure. But gave me an idea of the chaos the forecasters were facing. Being from around here most of the towns I've drove through (whether in my car or semi) and I had no idea most of these took place much less on the same day. Heck i used to swim In devils lake as a kid. I'm glad this history is preserved.
I was 10yrs old and was in Kokomo IN. I saw it before it hit the area, it was huge in the sky. It just missed us but the next street over was gone. The aftermath I will never forget. There have been many tornadoes come through there but I think Palm Sunday was the worse.
An outstanding vid. Finally somebody decided to write about this wicked tornado outbreak. A very underrated outbreak - the 1974 outbreak 9 yrs later would pretty much eclipse any further recollections of this outbreak. I was in Detroit and yes that atmosphere was way fired up. About 7 PM you could see wispy gray clouds against the high overcast, maybe about 20,000 feet up screaming towards the ENE. It was a really weird sky - looked like something out of a movie. Lots of long track supercells repeatedly producing tornadoes and many of them F4 and F5 (as you can see in this very well done vid) and many of those tornadoes were moving 60 mph.
Thank you for your in-depth report on this horrible tragedy. I have never seen the scraping marks on the ground before. I appreciate the good doctor's study and detailed work. Now I know what the F stands for. We just recently went through the F-5 Tornado early this month from Nebraska to Iowa.
My late father worked as a darkroom tech for the Elkhart Truth back in those days. He was the one who developed and printed those photos of the Midway twin funnels photographed by photographer Paul Hoffman. In all likelihood, dad was the first to lay eyes on those images. I’ve always been very proud of his role in history.
That’s incredible!
May his soul rest in peace !
tyyuyfyuyuuiÿþtiyyuyutugyfitif/t g yuuutir I fit/jure th uig y g ft/ ttit g/ /t y/ //g%%g g/tg/ggfugnftttfrt g gut ttttufgt 12:41 😊😊ÿ
@@Arcon1111such wise words.
@Mjkliop607 Thanks, my butt really knows what to type in situations like this. 🤣
Yeah, that's wonderful. I didn't even realize that happened.
That "twins" photo is one of the most famous images in storm history.
i LOVE giant subvorts!!!
@TheCrowMan15 Oh absolutely. There are quite a number of famous tornado photos.
I always thought that was a Photoshop!
@@reginaphalange30I'm gay too buddy lol
@reginaphalange30 , There is a restaurant in Russiaville,Indiana that has that photo on one of its walls. Those twin tornados leveled Russiaville parts of Kokomo and Greentown. About 10 years ago, a tornado hit a Starbucks in Kokomo off of US 31. One of my bf recorded it off an overpass as it was destroying stuff. He said he had a clear view and blue sky's while recording.
Getting double tapped by tornadoes is crazy
😭
Yeah, you cant blame them if they thought that was the end of the world
Double tapped by F5s has happened to unfortunate towns…
@@badbeardbill9956 moore...
@@badbeardbill9956 birmingham, moore, tanner, etc
I rode that storm out in Alto, Indiana. Will never forget the sound, the smell, the devistation of that evening. We had one of the few standing houses and several gathered there to await help and what was to happen next.
Tornados are amazing in some of the things they do; in our back yard we found a washer & dryer setting side by side, like you could start laundry like any other day. There was a fishing boat, still had the motor on the back and very little damage, the most amazing thing was there a rod & takle box setting in it like it had never moved. They found the owner; it had traveled almost 30 miles.
When we finally, very late that night, left to go to a safe place my dad's car was almost out of gas, he found a tanker truck and asked the guy if he could buy some gas. The guy told him the gas was for emergancy personel and not rubberneckers. My dad showed him the two broke windows in the car and told him where we were coming from. We got a full tank of gas and told he hoped everything worked out for us.
Took us six months to rebuild, I stayed the summer at my grandparents farm in eastern Indiana, watched another tornado miss the farm by half a mile. Wasn't one of my favorite years.
Glad you lived to tell your experience!
Call that lucky? my mom survived a electric + on fire tornado back then when she was for some reason 9 month pregnant and that baby was ME bro and the fact that I’m still alive is also crazy that I was in HER belly while she was pregnant and yet she survived it and this only happened in Australia so it’s very rare for it in Australia you could even ask my mom this and she would say yes it’s true bro
Bros like 60 💀
@@Thestar_eateri don’t care this isn’t a competition
@@VizElixirand you’re like 10. wrap it up bud
My mom was 10 years old at the time of this. Living in Northern Indiana her whole life, She has never forgotten it.
My mother was 4 years old when the tornado bypassed their house in wanatah. She doesn't remember it but my grandma never forgot it
Yup, my dad is your mom’s age and can still give a play by play of the day… definitely not forgotten by those who lived it!
My dad lived in Brunswick, Ohio, quite near Strongsville. He was 14 at the time, and told us about it.
I think it missed Indianapolis
@@markdinkel-uh2je If you had been there you would know right?
As someone who went through this outbreak, it will never be forgotten. We lived in Russiaville, Howard County. We lost three souls . It still hurts to think about that day.
Was in Alto; glad you made it.
Congratulations on making it tho
@@HelloKittyyQueenand youre young bruh ur point??? respect elders oh my god 😭
@@HelloKittyyQueen yes I am and proud of it.
@@HelloKittyyQueenis that supposed to be an insult or what?
I was 12 years old when the tornado hit Comstock park , Michigan! My Dad was sleeping due to shift he worked, the sky turned a yellow greenish color, my mom went upstairs woke my Dad up, and he looked at sky and said. Get your asses in basement now! We had National Guard around and the damage was great! We however had no damage,our neighbors garage however was in our backyard
I live in mi too ❤
All the way to 2024?Nah that's fake
@@yvonneramos9494 huh?
Bro is about 80 years old
@@yvonneramos9494 OHHH
I live in Northeast Indiana. I will never forget that night. I stood in the front yard with my dad and neighbors. Our neighbor pointed up and said “Kids go in the house, those are tornadoes.” We were spared in our locality but later we drove to the area and I saw the damage they did north of us and in Michigan. I was eight years old and I can still remember it like it was yesterday.
I know it did hit near Angola and one went by Kinder hook, michigan, hitting Coldwater Lake. Dad has mentioned this many times...
U guys saw it. U guys experience it
It's one of those outbreaks where you have iconic photos and videos taken. But then it does not receive much attention. This was very well made!
11:14 that thing could of covered my town Easily. 2 miles wide is 3.2 kilometers and my town is 1.4 kilometers which is. 0.86 miles.if my town has grown Head to Google Maps and find Blackfallds Alberta Canada
Finally someone who mentions this outbreak! It was insane how tornadoes go forgotten so fast. Thank you for making this awesome video! I really enjoyed it!
I wish I could know about every tornado/see at least one image of them all, but I know it's impossible, as there are at the least 100,000 tornadoes on record from all over the world. 😅😂😊
Not by the survivors. My grandmother was holding my infant mother when the tornado bypassed their house just outside wanatah
@@hellhound1389 On farms it was very common to have "root cellars" for storing veggies or home canned food in a cooler place. They also doubled as storm shelters. By the time I was paying attention (60's) to how they were constructed most of their wooden doors were dubious from rot. Better than being in a house or hugging the ground surface.
As I recall most had walls made of stone, secured in place with concrete filler and further stabilized a concrete roof cap and dirt packed onto the outside walls. Never heard of anyone getting killed or hurt in one. Although I'd very concerned how they'd handle the monsters that can come to visit.
@@Baltic_Hammer6162 In the Detroit area we had Virgin Mary statues in the yard and they would bury palms from last year's Palm Sunday in the shrubs on the SW corner of the house. That was considered tornado prevention.
This is horrible !🌪❕️ 😮
All I knew was the devastating hurricane of Joplin, Missouri.
Thank you for this video. 🧐 📚📚📚
People who think outbreaks are getting worse forget outbreaks like this one. This is very well done. You should be proud of this.....
I know tornadoes were a concern in the "old days" (1890 -1940) out on the prairie. I say that based on the number of "root cellars" which doubled as storm shelters.
Yeah but how long after that outbreak did it take to see similar. I was 5 in SW Michigan when it happened; it may an indelible impression on me. So growing up I was always waiting for another such outbreak. Nothing like that ever happened again, save, for a loner that hit downtown Kalamazoo in the early 80s
According to data, it’s gotten 4 times worse since the 1920’s
@@byrd7633 yet, ZERO EF5s since 2013. It's all cyclical.
Been tell pol all yeR it's guna be bad ohios had alot a outbreak like this is coming within 5 years
This is, without a doubt, the best analysis of the Palm Sunday tornadoes that I have ever seen. Thank you for taking the time to produce such an informative documentary.
Glad you enjoyed it! It took almost 3 months to dig up all the information and trace all the tornado paths. By far the most work I’ve ever put into a single project.
@@SusanKay- look in the sources I left in the video description, there is a lot of further reading and maps you can find there.
@@CeltonHenderson 6:59
Perfect and thorough analysis. Most documentaries don't do this much meteorological detail. But for someone like me it's like good medicine.
Grass ripped out of the ground!!!!!!! That's some power right there.
A bunch of these could
Received F5 ratings
At least three originally received F5 ratings from Fujita/DAPPL: the second Elkhart-Dunlap tornado, the Lebanon-Sheridan tornado and the Pittsfield-Strongsville tornado.
The other two I can see receiving F5 ratings are the Russiaville-southern Kokomo tornado and the first of the two southern Michigan wedge tornadoes.
Personally? I'd say all five of the ones I mentioned were of F5 intensity/did F5 damage. For example, the photos from Dunlap, southern Kokomo and Pittsfield were so shocking to me that I immediately said they warranted an F5 rating.
Yes
Yea the damage's wild
I am 69 but I still remember where I was and what I did on this day. This outbreak missed South Bend IN but it destroyed everything around us. When I say nothing was left I mean nothing
Since you are in SB you are aware that Midway In does not exist.
@@davidelkins3229 It does i looked on maps
The midway trailer park was in Elkhart. Both of my parents seen the twins that went through Elkhart. @@davidelkins3229
I was 12 y.o. and living in Onsted, Michigan. Two tornados hit our farm, several minutes apart. I will never forget the scream of the eves troughs. We lost farm buildings but kept the house. All of the chickens were killed. The neighbor's dairy cows were lost.
It always breaks my heart to think about all the animals who perish in these storms; they're victims just the same 😢
I was a little boy of 4 and I have a few memories of that day. We lived Speedway Indiana on the Westside of Indianapolis. Dad was working that day on the engine test stands at Allison's.
I remember Mom listening to the AM radio, maybe the power was out. I remember her putting some things in the basement - probably flashlights and heavy blankets to cover ourselves with, and I clearly remembered her telling me, "If I tell you to go, you get to the basement corner and cover up... and SCOOT!"
That's all I remember from almost 60 years ago but it made an impression. Thank you for this detailed history and photos of that day. I think the weather was rough for us but the closest tornado was the one hitting Lebanon. If course when you're living through it, you don't know if you'll be next. Severe weather warning is so much better today - lessons learned and technologies advanced so much from these past tragedies.
It was never forgotten by the many who experienced this violent outbreak first-hand and survived to tell their stories. My mother is one of them and she has vivid memories of the southern Michigan portion mentioned in this video, where multiple tornadoes hit the same places within a very short period of time. She has described in detail the horrific scene countless times during the many decades since. Thank you for sharing this brief summary of the highlights.
A while back I lived in Toledo for 5 years. With each severe storm warning I heard stories about the Palm Sunday tornado.
@@windycityliz7711 Toledo used to be a real tornado magnet (like Kokomo and any place within 30 miles of Elkhart). My dad used to tell us kids we'll never get hit by a tornado in Detroit because Toledo and Flint "catch them" (whatever that was supposed to mean) ..and we believed it.
@@mikezylstra7514 I grew up in Southern Illinois, where we took tornadoes for granted. Years later I ended up in SE Michigan (Wayne Co.) and NE Ohio (Lucas Co) and was shocked at how many times I had to head for the basement.
@@windycityliz7711those who were affected or lived not far from any of the events will never forget it.
Thank you for this very well made video. I was attending Friends Boarding School near Barnesville, Ohio when that storm struck. We were east of the areas where the tornadoes hit, but although the storm had weakened by the time it got to us, it was still strong enough to leave an impression that I can never forget. I can remember how beautiful Palm Sunday 1965 was during the day. But in the middle of the night, we heard the sound of a tremendous wind coming towards us. When it hit the dormitory, the building shook and suddenly there was lightning that was continuous. The wind was so high that you didn’t hear the thunder. Rain was falling in sheets. Everyone was nervous in the morning, and then we got the news that the Midwest had experienced its second worst tornado disaster, with Ohio hit hard.
i live down south. a few days ago i heard (and saw) continuous lightning just like the lightning you described during a tornado warning. does that mean a tornado could've hit us?
Not necessarily. Continuous lightning would be associated with a strong storm that may or may not have a tornado. We did not have a tornado where we were, at Barnesville , Ohio the night of Palm Sunday 1965. Barnesville is close to the border with West Virginia, well east of the area that saw devastating tornadoes😮. However, although the storm did not produce a tornado near us, it was still strong enough that any of us who experienced it can never forget it. I have never seen lightning like what I saw with that storm since.
@@willardtaylor6249 @willardtaylor6249 thanks for educating me !! my grandmother told me she'd never seen lightning like that.
Yep. My sisters and I were home by ourselves that afternoon/evening, as our parents had gone 20 miles away to visit relatives. We didn’t know enough to go to the basement, but luckily the 2 tornadoes that struck Manitou Beach passed about 1/2 to 1 mile away from us. Will never forget that night and seeing all the damage a few days later-I had scary dreams about tornadoes for many years afterward.
Even though we weren't hit by any tornadoes I still occasionally have dreams like that. I was 10 at that time.
I've been doing a fair amount of small-scale research in regards to this outbreak it's a real shame it's overshadowed by 1974 and 2011 because this outbreak is just simply insane.
Excellent video showcasing the paths and meteorological processes of this event because this one was a once in a generation level event.
I started doing the same just for fun but once I really began to understand the scale of this day I knew I had to make a video on it.
How often do events like this happen I wonder
@@-.__328 honestly? We don't fully know.
What we do know is if there's an unusually pronounced elevated mixed layer over the Great Lakes, that it's extremely bad news. It's happened on April 3, 1956 (last F5 to hit Michigan), April 11, 1965 (Palm Sunday Super Outbreak) and April 3, 1974 (1974 Super Outbreak): each time was a historic and notable outbreak in the Great Lakes region for different reasons.
@@-.__328 not very often. I have the Grazulis book and this outbreak was only even approached in intensity by that outbreak in the 1930's that hit Mississippi, and Georgia.and possibly the Feb 19 outbreak in the 1880's(?) (Tennessee and surrounding states; "mapped out" by somebody but people in those days thought if a barn collapsed in a gale it was automatically a tornado). And, btw, Grazulis' account of this outbreak is pretty weak - many events shown here are absent from his account of this outbreak.
My mom survived this event. My mom grew up in Arcadia, Indiana. She and her two younger brothers were in their home when the entire house was ripped off of the foundation and thrown across the road by a tornado. She was 11. She and my uncles were in the process of going down into the basement when it happened. One of my uncles lost his front teeth to debris and had false front teeth for the rest of his life. A tree fell into the basement and just missed my mom; shelves of glass jars of preserved food fell and smashed all around her but she only had minor scrapes. Neither of my uncle's made it into the basement, but aside from one of them loosing his top four front teeth they were uninjured. My grandfather worked at the local hospital and later told that local veterinarians had even some in to stitch the most minor lacerations because the hospital was so inundated with injuries. I don't know if that's true, but i've also no reason to doubt it.
How could something like this be forgotten
Because it only mention when other super outbreaks are mention
I think it's because there were no F5s.
@@dieterdelange9488the death count should also matter over 150+ people died
@@5starft123 Correct.
I think it could also be because of the passage of time 🤔 considering it happened in the 60s I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people forgot about it/haven’t heard of it
Many Amish-Mennonite farms were devastated that day. The Mennonite Disaster Service grew out of the Palm Sunday tornadoes and for several generations they were one of the first to arrive at tornado and other disaster areas to provide aid.
My mother lived though this outbreak. It is rarely covered by these tornado channels and it shame as few people realize just how devastate it was. I am glad to see someone cover it in such detail.
I live in one of the towns mentioned in the video and our community (specifically the people that have lived here for a long time) hasn't forgotten about it. I think about this outbreak whenever we get a tornado warning as a reminder that it happened here once and it could happen again.
Live in Sheridan Indiana... Was a little kid then, grew up hearing many stories. I can tell you, it is still talked about today. One story is wind speed so great, it drove straw into trunks of trees. Many others i won't mention.
Live in Indy, remember the story about straw. It must have been on tv. My parents made sure we knew how dangerous tornadoes were.
This is the most detailed account of the Palm Sunday outbreak that I've seen. Most of the photos I've never seen before. Great job!
that twin-funneled F4 image was freaky
18:33
It's been reanalyzed recently that the "twin funnels" was more likely two tornadoes rather than a multiple-vortex tornado; similar in process to but more impressive visually than the Hesston-Goessel, Kansas twin F5s from March 13, 1990.
There's a billboard on US 33 advertising Arab Pest Control ("See a bug? Call Arab") in one of those pics - it was still there in 1988.Traveling up that stretch of US 33 always gave me the willies because of those pics.
6:08
@@mikezylstra7514😮
Celton, I have to say man, you have an incredible talent making these videos. Everything about them - the quality, your narration, the content, the pace - feels and looks like professional documentaries. I really look forward to each video you post. ❤
I remember the May 6th 1965 tornado outbreak in Minnesota! I was 5 years old and still remember my mother screaming!
That's scary!
wow
WCCO covered it & it even used it's Klaxon Horn.
My dad was in High School at the time. Lived in Hillsdale about 2 miles north of where the two F4s tracked in southern Michigan. Thing he remembers about that day is the color of the sky before the storms - was a weird tan / peach color all afternoon. Was completely unaware there were tornadoes until the next day but remembers being able to go out into the woods behind their farm and find debris scattered in the trees.
Thank you for the video! I live in Lima, near Elida Ohio, and my parents who lived in nearby Delphos at the time, had their car pushed off the road. My mom was pregnant with my oldest brother at the time and didn't find.out until the next morning from my Grandmother. If they would've been hit by the tornado I might not be here (I was born in 1971). It just missed a small town north of Lima , Cairo where my step Grandparents lived if it had hit Cairo it would have been most likely destroyed and many more killed. 13 died a mom, dad and their 2 kids when their car was flipped into a water filled ditch and drowned. A member of my church lost his Great Grandparents in this storm
Ted's data says they woulda been wiped out there
I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was 5 years old. I'll never forget when it hit northwestern Ohio. These storms gave a whole different meaning to the words "Palm Sunday." This day was what brought the National Weather Service to put up tornado sirens to warn the public.
I was 9 years old on Palm Sunday 1965, living in Kalamazoo, MI. It was my First Communion Day. I will never forget how beautiful the day started out. And then--how the storms rolled in without any warning, how the sky was a sickly mud-yellow to the northwest, boiling black clouds relentlessly pouring up from the southwest. We were outside watching when my Dad shouted that a funnel cloud was going over the house and we should all get in the basement NOW! Thankfully it did not touch down but I believe it may have been the one that hit Cooper Township in Kalamazoo County. After that I became obsessed with tornadoes. I have taken Skywarn training multiple times, when severe weather threatens, or even when it doesn't, I am always weather aware and watching the sky. Lately we have had a couple of tornadoes here in Michigan that literally were under the radar on days where there was not supposed to be any tornadoes; one killed a little kid in Livonia. My philosophy is: I do not care what the SPC says--if there are thunderstorms there is a potential for tornadoes and no tornado is ever going to catch me unaware. I am so glad that our warning systems are so much better than in 1965 and I say there is no excuse for people not being aware that the weather could turn dangerous.
Also the reason why the sky was that color was because of all the dust kicked up by the Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin twisters earlier in the day.
Damn, I've never commented on a video before this one and sir I have to say your content is high quality. Thanks.
We drove to Russsiaville [pronounced Roosh’ a ville] and Alto. We lived in Elwood, In at the time, just south of where the destruction was. Several funnels went over us, but never touchdown. Russiaville was simply gone the next day, as was Alto.we had an aunt in R’ville but she was in Anderson, In that night. We took her home the next day and it was gone, just a few of the cinderblocks of the foundation left. We were all stunned at the destruction. She was certain she would have been killed had she been home. We looked awhile but never recovered any of her personal possessions.
I was born and raised in NW Indiana; lived there practically all my life. Growing up these storms were talked about every year around palm sunday. Their lasting terror crept through during the 2011 super outbreak, as murmurs spread, praying nothing would be as bad as that palm sunday. There are older adults here who have stories never told on videos like these (which, how could they, there are so many).
This the best 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak video I have watched so far 💯
It's unfortunate this outbreak seems to get overshadowed.
No One Talks About This Tornado Outbreak As Much Unlike The 1974 Super Outbreak and I’ve Read About The 1925 Tornado Outbreak!
Great work on this video. The Palm Sunday Outbreak definitely needs more recognition, given its infamy and the fact that it seems to have been overshadowed by more recent such outbreaks such as the 1974 and 2011 Super Outbreaks.
Wow. Thank you for this. I was almost eight when this happened and lived in the area affected and still do. I get jittery during bad weather. It got so green just before the twisters hit. There are still trees around that show that characteristic tornado damage.
Those dark green ugly boiling clouds coming from the west, always made me hyper alert. I guess I viewed them as nature's way of warning on something really dangerous coming.
This is the first major documentary I've seen on this historic outbreak. Very well done.
Living on the northeast side of Goshen. In., I watched as one tornado made its way to Shipshewana. Just before that, we observed ducks flying backwards over our roof. After it was all over, my husband and my father joined the rescue attempts. They were traumatized by the absolute horror of it all. Needless to say, our community panicked for years when a warning siren went off.
I appreciate the vast amount of research that went into this video. Although sad and tragic, it is a very well-made production.
Same here. I never saw a lot of this content neither in the (Detroit) newspapers or on the TV. news They concentrated on the Manitou Beach and Toledo tornadoes - where only the "Lost Peninsula" part of the Toledo tornado (where it entered Lake Erie) was mentioned. We never knew about the path through Toledo itself. Little else of this event was ever reported. I guess if it was beyond an hour's drive, it never made it to the news.
I’ve lived in northern Indiana my entire life (born in Elkhart, currently residing in South Bend), & I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this. Mother Nature is absolutely insane. Now i understand why my dad has always been so terrified of tornadoes. Any time there was a mention of a tornado, my dad would always rush everyone into the basement.
My grandma is from Illinois. She told me about this when I was around seven and it’s good to see that it’s not forgotten anymore.
My dad was in the Palm Sunday 1965 outbreak, specifically the one that began in Roll, In. He was in southern Wells county at the time visiting a friend, and he said when he went home, he had seen straw sticking through telephone poles.
Yes that was a thing. And it was so strange to see stuff like that.
Wow! This is now my favorite tornado outbreak, next to the 2011 Super Outbreak. Thanks for going into detail about this outbreak especially since it's so underrated!
I was 9 years old at the time of this outbreak. We lived in Dearborn Heights, MI. I remember the day being stormy, and severe T-storm warnings and tornado watches were being broadcast on TV. I had friends over, and we were playing in the new 2 and a half car garage that had just been built. The storm was getting worse, and my mom called out to us to come in and play in the basement. Shortly after, my dad and I drove my friends home. We didn't have a tornado that day though. Just some sightings of funnel clouds. My now deceased husband was born 8 days after the outbreak on April 19, 1965. (Jan Griffiths).
I remember that day . We lived in Michigan and it was a beautiful day . My parents made us go into the tornado shelter . It was a cement block structure built underground with a metal roof . Luckily nothing happened .
I remember asking , why we had to go down there because it was so nice out .
The tornado did hit towns close to us though .
I remember the weird yellow sky, in Middlebury. My husband's family lived in the Sunnyside neighborhood, direct hit from the Dunlap tornado. He was a tiny baby and was badly injured. His brother and dad slightly injured. The house blew away. His Mom was at work. She knew there were bad storms and tornados but not how bad. She told me once that when she got off work and went home. She had to park her car and walk due to the debris. She didn't realize she had walked through her own neighborhood and past the site of her house until she got to her Mom's house farther down the same road and just beyond the tornado's range. Scary image. Of course panicked about her family. My Dad was very lucky. He'd gone to Elkhart to help my Grandma do her taxes, and was driving home down US 20. Close to intersection with SR 15, he's passed by a car doing 90. Dad said that driver could see the tornado, it was in Dad's blind spot. A little restaurant at that intersection was destroyed, broken clock indicating exact time, Dad said about 4 min after he drove through. But he made it home ok. You could see damage, especially in the woods for decades. Our local Civil Defense morphed into storm watchers after that.
Very well done video. This one indeed has been forgotten. I don’t know why because it’s right there with ‘74 and 2011. This video was needed to remind ppl. Thank you
Garo yepremian
Yes, that was a sad day. I was only 2 1/2 years old, but with the severity of the moment from my parents and family, I remember my mother carrying me to the basement of family where we were having palm Sunday dinner. We lived at coldwater Lake, and luckily, we were northeast of our home and didn't suffer a direct hit. The first tornado, my father, stayed upstairs, but the second one, he came rushing to the basement when he said it was fine until the noodles started slapping him in the face. Unfortunately, our home was mostly destroyed, and a neighbor swore he saw the water sucked off the bottom of the lake in the first tornado.
WOW. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Grew up hearing stories of the Palm Sunday tornadoes in Michigan.But these all are tornadoes.I never heard of and i am floored. Thank You for telling us these stories.
there was also a Palm Sunday tornado that went through Jenison, Hudsonville, Standale, and Comstock Park when I was in the second grade in 1956.
@@itsjustme7487 my mom and others used to tell me about it! I think it was an f5!!
@@jadefox5285 My uncle was a GR Police Sargent and told us some amazing stories. It was quite a memory.
@@itsjustme7487 really?? I believe it... the more i learn about tornadoes, the crazier the stories actually are
@@itsjustme7487 I remember that. That wasn't on Palm Sunday - I think it was April 2nd (a Monday?). Comstock Park seems to get hit by tornadoes for every little excuse - kinda like Flint.
I have done extensive amateur study over this day because the picture of the twins fascinated me in a scary way the moment I saw it. This is the best video I’ve seen made over this forgotten day. Thank you!!
My mother, an Indiana born and raised girl, was only 7 years old when this happened and was staying at a family member's house when one of these tornadoes touched down. She and her family were nearly hit directly by it, but the funnel didn't touch down until after it had passed from overhead them.
Same age as your mom. I remember it well.
I grew up in Frankfort. Just north off 75 is a town called Moran. Palm Sunday turned it into just a small neighborhood. But it once was a full sized tiny town. Theater, gas station, stores. Wiped clean off the map. They made every remaining house totndao shelters. All but two remain as many filled them in for being a "eyesore". My husband's parents have one of the remaining two left and have used it.
Palm Sunday reminds people in my hometown that believe a tornado would never hit Frankfort a lie.
The original footage from 7:50 to 8:05 is of outstanding quality, given the technical standards back then. Amazing!
To my knowledge there are no actual videos of these tornadoes that exist, the footage you see used was footage I captured a few weeks ago in Nebraska near the town of Elkhorn during a storm chase that I used as b roll and edited to make it look old. Looking back I probably should have included a disclaimer in the video for that but I kinda just assumed people would realize that given the high video quality of the tornado, oh well, the things you only realize after you release a video I guess lol.
@@CeltonHenderson Ah, thanks for the clarification. I knew the pics looked familiar. I had seen your videos from Elkhorn and was stunned by this 'ballet'. Great work.👍🏼
I knew next to nothing about this event. Terrifying, and well described.
Something crazy about this outbreak is that an EF-2 had crossed the road that I live on in Tuscola County Michigan. Quite fascinating!
Michigan is not usually a state that leaps into our minds as tornado prone state. For me its Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa. However I grew up in the central US so that narrows my view. Thanks to the internet storm channels I have since broadened my view drastically. Ohio River Valley seems like a corridor of tornado magnets.
@@Baltic_Hammer6162Exactly! Here in Michigan we get an average of 15 tornadoes a year. Well this year, we have already had 14. This will be an insane year, especially this summer!
@@stormchaserblaynelinzner It's weird how the storms are tracking this year. I live in koskiusko county and we have had zero real thunderstorms so far. We usually get slammed all the time.
@@stormchaserblaynelinzner It's been decades since the last really significant tornado occurred in Michigan.
I love learning about old tornado outbreaks
Can you say the state the towns are in? Maybe define the maps better. Still, a great video. I am a local to the Elkhart area and to this day, they still talk about it. Most of the old timers have gone, but the ones who were young adults or children remember. I have talked to many, many survivors of them. My parents and grandparents had the farms north of the Indiana state line in Cass County. Sunday Dinner. The view south was a wall of black clouds. It was obvious something was happening. They got the edges of weather. Thye told me the animals were very nervous. Farmers just listen to nature. Both sets of Grandparents were set. The radio and short wave was full of news of the tornadoes. So, they were watching. Thye had black clouds to the north and south they told me.
There is a small memorial for the people that died in in the tornados that hit the Dunlop/Elkhart County subdivisions that were north of the Midway Trailer Park, near the former Concord Mall. Its small private corner but worth seeing. It is sad. I go there sometimes to pick up sticks and tidy up the grass. Before all the old timers are gone, listen to the stories.
Great vid. Thank you.
Jeeze this comment needs to be more popular
No I did not read all but I read most
And Thank You for helping maintain the memorial. Much of history would be lost were it not for people like you ❤
Thank you for your work at the memorial. Just know I’m from Central Ohio and I’ve taken the time to stop and see it.
@@P_RO_ It is our pleasure. I dont live near there but when I go by, I try to help.
I have an original twin tornado photo sent by the Elkhart Truth from 1965 from when my grandparents farm had damage to the windmill and barn.
I was JUST looking for a video on the twin tornado, but none were showing up. Then this was recommended to me, uploaded a mere few days ago, wow!
Many thanks for your coverage of this important event. I grew up in northern Indiana and the Palm Sunday tornadoes were never forgotten. Folks there always take warnings and watches seriously and I've carried that caution forward ever since.
People forget that these outbreaks have happened almost 70-80 years ago, but if it happens this year they are convinced it’s due to climate change
Well one reason people say climate change is how much more stronger the tornadoes and just how many are dropping down
Can't we all reach a consensus on Climate Change , either it is changing or these phenomena are mostly Historical.
Among other things smdh😔
I finally agree there is man-made climate change because all you have to do is look up “patent ionosphere”
People just don’t understand the cycles of the earth. Every 50-100 thousand years we go through a cycle and the earth either heats up or freezes. The last time this cycle flipped was 12,000 years ago when the ice age ended, so next time it happens we will be in another ice age. People have no clue that we are in what’s considered the golden age of weather because the temperature has stayed relatively steady for the past 2000 years for the first time ever. Once this stability ends the whole idea of climate change will not matter because then people will finally understand there’s nothing we can do to help or stop the earths unstable weather patterns. We are just lucky to live during this time
That's something I could not even imagine. Getting hit by a violent tornado just to have another come right behind it. Not giving survivors a chance to get away. It's absolutely mind boggling. Thankfully it is not something that happens with each storm season. How this outbreak is not talked about is crazy, just for that reason alone.
I am from Michigan and I have not heard of this before. I am in disbelief. This is awful.
An awful day. My dad has talked about the damage at Coldwater Lake. He saw the aftermath only a few days later.
Growing up in Indiana, I often heard tales of the “Palm Sunday Tornadoes”. I had a great aunt who survived by lying in her bathtub as her home crashed around her. She also told of neighbors who were thrown out of their home into a field and survived. Thanks to this video I now have a better understanding of why this was such a significant event.
Palm sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 was a destructive and deadly one 271 lives taken and those twin funnels picture is perhaps the most amazing capture ever
I've not forgotten, and this came 21 years before me. I attended Skywarn in Centerville, MI this past March, and I introduced myself to a lady officer and cautioned that we are long overdue. This last May 7, a tornado touched down in Centerville and travelled all the way to Sherwood. EF2 Multivortex. Branch County got three tornadoes this day. The big one is yet to come, like the double F4's that hit my former and current home areas of Branch and Hillsdale Counties.
Another righteously told case history! I loved hearing parts of the soundtrack from the Plainfield case study.
In Alto, Indiana the tornado was caught on audio as it tore through a church. The audio is available here on UA-cam if anyone fancies a listen. It's possible to hear the bell ring as the tornado rips the steeple off the building. As far as I know, no one died at that church...but don't quote me on that!
I was in grade school and remember that day. We lived in Toledo then. I recall speaking about tornados earlier that day with a friend. A tornado went over our home! There were 4 of us kids at that time, my dad was at work, and my mom and us huddled in the hallway of our small brick ranch home. I remember the windows breaking and the curtains blowing in with hail. A shopping center was struck close to our home.
I really appreciate videos like this that explains weather lingo. I've learned alot from watching videos such as these. Thank you for sharing !
Excellent video! I was 10 living in Bridgeport, Michigan. While we did not have a tornado the image of the green undulating sky as one storm rolled in well never leave my memory. Still give me chills! Again, just excellent!
Great video, the two supercells and tornadoes following similar paths in Southern MI is just ridiculous. I never knew the first tornado was so wide either. I could only imagine seeing this outbreak with modern day radar and video.
The Branch county Michigan tornadoes were by far the most fascinating for me to read about when I was doing the research for this video, this outbreak is a rabbit hole that goes deeper the closer you look. I could make like 10 different videos on it.
@@CeltonHenderson In my book, that was an epic event. One tornadic storm following another by (was it?) like, 40 minutes? Overlapping tracks at some points.
Extremely well-researched and engaging presentation. This is THE definitive guide to the Palm Sunday '65 tornado outbreak, particularly regarding the evolution and characteristics of the most significant individual tornadoes. I notice that some tornado cycles produce new storms some distance away, up to 5 miles, while in other cases the new tornado is literally right on the heals of the old one with no break in the path. As an aside, this phenomenon makes me think that the case for a continuous track on the March, 1925 Tri-State tornado is rather shaky. In fact, some observers saw the storm that later hit DeSoto and Murphy "split into two" just as it reached the Illinois border. This suggests it did cycle at least once, so I personally do not believe the idea that the Tri-State tornado path length was in excess of 200 miles.
I think the supercell path from near Lafayette Indiana to Cleveland is probably equivalent to the tristate. It moved about 55 - 60 mph. There is no documentation of a single tornado in the tristate - rural, and rain shrouded over much of its path..And apparently just as discontinuous.
Thank you for investigating this!! Gonna show my mom. She lived in crystal lake at the time
Born in 1967, I grew up about 5 miles from where the famous twins picture was taken. I lived in one of the few houses in my neighborhood with a basement. I remember being little, and having "tornado parties". Too young to realize that people were terrified, it was just all these people showing up and wanting in our basement, to me. I've heard so many stories over the years about that day. My dad witnessed the Sunnyside tornado as him and one of his friends were on the way to Midway trailer park, to help with taking people to hospitals. I have had a lifelong interest in tornadoes. Even have a tornado tattoo with "Finger Of God" inked around it. "Terrible Beauty" is how I think of them. Fascinating, but deadly and destructive. Thanks for a great video. A tally of the casualties, estimated monetary damages, and combined lengths of tracks would have been interesting too.
You should do a video of the Tornado Outbreak of 1967 specifically the unwarned EF5 Tornado in Belvidere
That was an F4 but still a great tornado to do a video on, especially since the Oak Lawn tornado overshadowed it
TYVM for the work you've done on this report. This is the most informative report I have ever found concerning Palm Sunday 1965. I believe I was 8 years old at this time. I was in the Wanatah, IN tornado. We had just moved to Indiana from Massachusetts. My mother knew very little about tornados and left myself and three siblings in the car while she went into a little restaurant to call my dad. While she was gone, we watched a tornado pass across the street (Route 30?) pick up the barn in the property immediately east of us, and break it down into tiny pieces of wood. I was terrified and developed a phobia for storms that lasted for decades. To this day, it is the most evil thing I have ever seen. My parents protected us from many real-life tragedies and I knew very little else about this outbreak. I'd search it from time to time, but when it was mentioned, it was more of an after thought or an 'also ran.' I am keeping this for my family history, Thank you so much. I had no idea how terrible that day really was.
Well god bless your mom for doing the right thing to protect the family
Excellent presentation! Those poor people hit twice by tornadoes...I guess it seemed like the end of the world. 😪
This video can be one of those games where you take a shot every time he says tornado
Underrated comment
Wow that twin twister photo is out of this world.
The twin tornado photo shown was taken in Dunlop, Indiana.. a small community between Goshen & Elkhart, Indiana.. I was only 2 years of age & approximately 5 miles s.w of impact.. Ill never forget that day or the damage left at only 2 years of age & now in my sixtys..
Just so everyone knows its technically not a "super outbreak" as it has a ois score of 238
But it is ranked 3rd so it might as well be
Here in uk we are so lucky we dont have to deal with these i really feel for you all must be so scary and all that damage and loss of life this was really well done thankyou for the insight of what you have to deal with
Watched 3 times in succession, and now will look at the segments separately.
I was 5 when this happened, living in SW Michigan. It made an indelible impression on me. Remember hunkered down for hours with my family.
im from allendale michigan and i screamed "ALLENDALE HAS BEEN MENTIONED" im stoked
Hi Allendale from Wyoming. 👋
My Mother and Grandmother remember that day very well. So grateful that the Lord kept them protected
Another great video done SO well. So many great details are included. Keep up the good work, Celton!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very interesting video of severe weather history. I was only a little over a year old so I don't recall this. I don't even remember the tornado that hit our town in NE Arkansas in 1968...I have a slight memory of fear and being put in our sunken bath tub with the small mattress from my bed placed over me. I was terrified of storms as a child. Still am, but I love watching weather streams and storm chasers. The town I'm from has been hit several times by devastating tornadoes. In 1972 it destroyed all of our lives, it was so horrible to walk through my best friend's neighborhood looking for their belongings...seeing things and death that I will never be able to erase. Poor folks...
Amazing video! I mean that. Very good job covering everything that was happening simultaneously was chaos in sure. But gave me an idea of the chaos the forecasters were facing. Being from around here most of the towns I've drove through (whether in my car or semi) and I had no idea most of these took place much less on the same day. Heck i used to swim In devils lake as a kid. I'm glad this history is preserved.
This is so well done. My jaw was on the floor the whole time. These poor people.
I was in this one . I will never forget.
Bet U have Nightmares of 1965 At Times with This Tornado Outbreak!
I was 10yrs old and was in Kokomo IN. I saw it before it hit the area, it was huge in the sky. It just missed us but the next street over was gone. The aftermath I will never forget. There have been many tornadoes come through there but I think Palm Sunday was the worse.
I was waiting for a vid like this and I Came as soon as I saw the title! Thx for the amazing videos!
An outstanding vid. Finally somebody decided to write about this wicked tornado outbreak.
A very underrated outbreak - the 1974 outbreak 9 yrs later would pretty much eclipse any further recollections of this outbreak. I was in Detroit and yes that atmosphere was way fired up. About 7 PM you could see wispy gray clouds against the high overcast, maybe about 20,000 feet up screaming towards the ENE. It was a really weird sky - looked like something out of a movie. Lots of long track supercells repeatedly producing tornadoes and many of them F4 and F5 (as you can see in this very well done vid) and many of those tornadoes were moving 60 mph.
This was very well done. It was very informative.
Thank you for your in-depth report on this horrible tragedy. I have never seen the scraping marks on the ground before. I appreciate the good doctor's study and detailed work. Now I know what the F stands for. We just recently went through the F-5 Tornado early this month from Nebraska to Iowa.