On May 15, one of the local TV stations mentioned the 40th anniversary of the devastating tornado that hit Charles City.
I was talking to my father about this newscast, and that brought up the discussion about another tornado that tore through northeast Iowa. Dad still remembers looking out his door when a tornado destroyed a church that was between Dunkerton and Waterloo. It made both of us wonder just how often tornadoes did hit Iowa in the past.
The library has a book to answer questions like that called Tornado: Accounts of Tornadoes in Iowa by John L. Stanford (977.703 STA). There is one chapter that covers the memorable tornadoes chronologically from 1803 - 1986.
When Dad and I checked May 15, 1968, we were given much more information on what happened that day in Iowa. We remembered only the tornado that hit Charles City, but tornadoes hit Oelwein and Maynard as well as other communities in Iowa. Author John L. Stanford does a good job of writing about the events; it's not dry. Plus, the book is filled with black and white pictures of the tornadoes and the destruction they left.
In the chapter called "Tornado origins and characteristics," the author mentions that tornadoes can occur any time of the year. It includes a chart showing tornado activity from 1959-1971. This chart shows activity every month of the year except February and December. But in the text, it mentions that there have been a few reports of tornadoes in December and February in the twentieth century. Because there have been so few in those months, the chart does not show them.
The book also clarifies a disagreement that I have with my dad. He calls them cyclones as well as tornadoes. I told him that they are called tornadoes in Iowa. I was surprised to find out that they are indeed cyclones according to the definition given by meteorologists. According to the author, Iowans called cyclones until rather recently.
Now, you'll have to excuse me. I have to apologize to my father for arguing with him about what to call these storms.
c Waterloo Public Library 2008
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing the information. I'm originally from Charles City and for the last two years I have been researching this significant event/storm(s). The book you have is an excellent book, I bought it on EBAY. May 15, 1968 was a major outbreak from MN down to Arkansas. The tornados and funnel clouds that appeared in counties SW of Charles City were dropping up and down that day. Just outside of CC (two or three funnel clouds were seen coming together to form one larger wedge shape funnel cloud). This was on the ground for almost 65 miles and ended in MN. My research includes gathering news stories, personal stories and photos of where individuals where during the storm. I also have before and after photos of the Charles City buildings and storms.
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