Comfrey - St. Peter Tornado Outbreak

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Comfrey - St. Peter Tornado Outbreak

Tornado tracks of the Comfrey/St. Peter Tornado Outbreak through southern Minnesota

Date of tornado outbreak:

March 29, 1998

Duration¹:

3 hours, 20 minutes [3:23 PM CST (1123 UTC) to 6:43 PM CST (1443 UTC)]

Maximum rated tornado²:

F4 tornado

Tornadoes caused:

14 confirmed

Damages:

$230 million

Fatalities:

Areas affected:

Southern Minnesota

¹Time from first tornado to last tornado
²Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

The Comfrey - St. Peter Tornado Outbreak was a tornado outbreak which left a path of destruction across southern Minnesota on March 29, 1998. Fourteen tornadoes were recorded, including one F3 and one F4, resulting in 2 deaths.^[1], injured 36 and caused over $230 million in damages^[2] The towns of St. Peter, Le Center, and Comfrey were hardest hit. This outbreak shattered nearly every early-season tornado record for the state of Minnesota. It was named the top severe weather event in Minnesota during the 1990s.

1 Outbreak description
2 Confirmed tornadoes
3 See also
4 External links
5 Notes and references

[edit] Outbreak description

March 29, 1998 was an unusual day weatherwise to begin with. A warm front that pushed northward into the region brought with it temperatures up to 70 degrees, some 25 degrees above normal.^[3] ^[4] At the same time, a strong cold front approached the area from South Dakota. These features, along with strong upper level winds, set the stage for a major tornadic event across the southern part of the state. The timing & strength of the situation was unprecedented for the region, as there had been only 6 tornadoes ever recorded in Minnesota during the month of March.

The storms began forming in southwestern Minnesota in mid-afternoon, with the first tornado, rated F2 intensity, touching down at approximately 3:25 PM near Lismore.^[5] Several more small tornadoes touched down during the next hour in the same area. Most of these tornadoes formed from one parent supercell, which then proceeded to track 150 miles across southern Minnesota during the rest of the late afternoon hours, spawning many more tornadoes along the way.^[6]

At approximately 4:30 PM CST a twister ripped through the town of Comfrey, killing one and destroying most of the town. The tornado achieved F4 status near Hanska, and at one point had a one and a quarter mile width. After being on the ground for 67 miles, the twister finally lifted back into the clouds near Nicollet . A few minutes later at around 5:30 PM, an F3 tornado formed and tore through St. Peter, a town of about 10,000 people. It killed one person and inflicted severe damage on much of the town. Gustavus Adolphus College sustained heavy damage after taking a direct hit from the twister, and officials estimated 200 to 300 homes in St. Peter were damaged or destroyed. Broken bricks littered the downtown, trees were uprooted, storefronts were broken and the shattered contents of a boat store lay scattered over a six-block area.^[7]

Smaller tornadoes continued to be spawned for the next hour in Le Sueur, Rice, and Dakota counties before the supercell finally dissipated as it moved into Wisconsin. Personal checks that were sucked up by the twister from a bank in St. Peter later fell onto people's yards in Eagan and Apple Valley, sixty miles away. In addition, an obituary page from the St. Peter Herald newspaper turned up in Apple Valley, and a page which was probably from a Le Center library book was found in Eagan.

[edit] Confirmed tornadoes

Table of confirmed tornadoes - after surveys by local weather service offices

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
14	4	4	4	1	1	0

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
F2	N of Lismore	Nobles	1123	0 mile	A tornado destroyed buildings...trees in shelter belts...and numerous pieces of farm equipment...and killed two cattle.
F0	E/ESE of Leota	Nobles	1125	0 mile	A tornado damaged trees and a few buildings.
F0	N of Wilmont	Nobles	1128	0 mile	A tornado caused damage to trees and a few buildings.
F1	NE of St. Killian	Nobles	1145	0 mile	A tornado damaged trees and destroyed old farm buildings.
F1	E of Avoca	Murray	1150	3 miles	A strong tornado which began in Murray County tracked across Cottonwood County and then further northeast. The tornado destroyed numerous farms, farm equipment, buildings, trees, power lines and poles, vehicles, and other structures in its path. A vehicle was tossed a hundred yards as it hit the first farm in southwest Cottonwood County. People in the basement of the house on this farm received minor injuries. The tornado also destroyed a church near Jeffers, and destroyed numerous homes in the southern part of Comfrey, a city which is only partly in Cottonwood County.
F1	SW of Fulda	Murray	1155	0 mile	A tornado damaged trees and destroyed old farm buildings.
F4	Comfrey area	Murray, Cottonwood, Brown, Watonwan, Blue Earth, Nicollet	1230	67 miles	Tornado began 7 miles east of Avoca in Murray county, continued through Cottonwood, Brown, extreme Northwest Watonwan, Northwest Blue Earth, and finally lifted off 4 miles east of Courtland in Nicollet county. Total storm track was 67 miles. The tornado ripped through the village of Comfrey destroying a grain elevator and damaging 75% of the town. Much of downtown Comfrey destroyed including the town hall. School heavily damaged. 100 people made homeless. 50 homes destroyed. 130 farmsteads damaged or destroyed in Brown county. 500 dairy cows killed. One man critically injured in collapse of farmstead northwest of the town of Hanska. He died the next day. 35 buildings destroyed or damaged in far Northwest Blue Earth county. Damage estimate estimated. Property damage to extreme northwest Blue Earth county across Cambria township estimated at 2 million. Property damage to extreme northwest Watonwan county estimated at 245 thousand.
F0	W/WNW of Wabasha	Wabasha	1307	2 miles	Hail the size of dimes to as large as tennis balls was reported by storm spotters and law enforcement officials across parts of southeast Minnesota. The city of Rochester was especially hit hard with significant hail damage to cars and trucks. A tornado touched down briefly near Wabasha as well, but no injuries or damage was reported.
F3	St. Peter area	Nicollet, Le Sueur	1318	18 miles	Tornado made a direct hit on the city of St. Peter and Gustavius Adolphus College. All major buildings on campus suffered varying degrees of damage. The spire on Christ Chapel snapped in half. 70% of the windows on campus were broken. 500 homes were destroyed in St. Peter, 1,700 were damaged. Over 1,000 trees uprooted. One person killed just outside St. Peter when the tornado struck a vehicle. St. Peter Catholic Church destroyed. Hospital severely damaged. Roof ripped off library. 25% of books lost. Debris from St. Peter found 50 miles away in southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. 60 rural homes and farms damaged or destroyed from Courtland to St. Peter. Rural damage estimated at 6.5 million.
F2	Le Center area	Le Sueur	1348	17 miles	Tornado tracked through Le Center and adjoining rural areas. Most of the businesses in the southern part of town were damaged. Buildings destroyed at county fairgrounds. 15 mobiles homes at a trailer park destroyed, another 26 suffering major damage. Over 100 farm buildings destroyed.
F1	SW of Lonsdale	Rice	1409	0 mile	None reported.
F2	Lonsdale	Rice	1416	5 miles	Four homes and 6 businesses severely damaged. Street department building damaged. 20 farms damaged or destroyed.
F2	WNW of Castle Rock	Dakota	1425	3 miles	None reported.
F0	SW of Hastings	Dakota	1443	1 mile	None reported.
Source: National Climatic Database Center