1883 Rochester Tornado
| F5 tornado | |
|---|---|
Damage from the F5 tornado that struck Rochester, MN.
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| Formed | August 21, 1883 5:30 p.m. CST |
| Max rating1 | F5 tornado |
| Damage | $700,000 |
| Casualties | 37 fatalities, 200+ injuries |
| Areas affected | Rochester, Minnesota |
| 1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale | |
The 1883 Rochester tornado was an F5 (estimated) tornado that hit Rochester, Minnesota on August 21, 1883. The tornado was one in a series of tornadoes that hit Southeast Minnesota on that day, causing at least 37 deaths and over 200 injuries, and it was the impetus for the creation of the Mayo Clinic. On July 21, two other tornadoes struck the area. An F4 tornado was one of a family of tornadoes that killed 4 people near Dodge Center (15 miles west of Rochester), and an F2 tornado devastated Elgin, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Rochester.
According to Joseph Leonard as written in History of Olmsted County, Minnesota,
Although meteorology in 1883 was primitive compared with modern science, Leonard's observations reveal quite a bit about the atmospheric conditions in Rochester that day. High temperatures, high humidity, strong surface winds, and vertical wind shear appear to have all been present, and all are key factors in the development of thunderstorms and tornadoes. The Rochester tornado was one of at least 3 violent tornadoes that hit southeastern Minnesota that day, but because the Rochester twister was so devastating, the other two were largely ignored by the press and relatively little is known about them.
The city of Rochester did not have a place to treat the injured from this tornado, as there were only 3 hospitals in the state of Minnesota outside of the Twin Cities at that time; none were near Rochester. After the tornado struck, a dance hall (Rommel Hall) was transformed into a temporary emergency room.
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