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1886 St. Cloud–Sauk Rapids tornado outbreak

Weather event in the United States

Summary

Weather event in the United States

Field	Value
name	1886 St. Cloud–Sauk Rapids tornado outbreak
image	Pf037671.jpg
alt	Black-and-white photograph highlighting wreckage and wooden boards
caption	Destruction in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, after the F4 tornado of April 14, 1886
duration	April 14–15, 1886

On April 14–15, 1886, a destructive tornado outbreak affected portions of the Midwestern and Southern United States. The outbreak generated at least 18 tornadoes, four of which were violent, including the St. Cloud–Sauk Rapids tornado, an F4 tornado that tore through the cities of St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, and Rice, Minnesota, on April 14, destroying much of the town of Sauk Rapids and killing 72 people along its path. It is the deadliest tornado on record in Minnesota. Other tornadoes occurred in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas on the same day, suggesting the possibility of a large outbreak. In all, the entire outbreak killed at least 87 people and injured at least 324.

Confirmed tornadoes

Weather map of the storm system that would produce the tornado outbreak in the Midwestern and Southern United States on April 14, 1886.

The ratings for these tornadoes were done by tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis and are not official ratings.

April 14 event

F#	Location	County / Parish	State	Time (UTC)	Path length	Max. width	Summary
cat2}}	F2	Shubert	Richardson	NE	21:00–?	5 mi	100 yd	1 death – Tornado injured 10 people and destroyed or damaged three or more homes.
cat2}}	F2	Lake Reno to Lake Mary	Pope, Douglas	MN	21:00–?	9 mi		Tornado destroyed or damaged six barns on five farmsteads. A few homes lost their roofs or tipped onto their sides.
cat4}}	F4	S of Griswold to NNE of Coon Rapids	Cass, Audubon, Guthrie, Carroll	IA	21:00–?	55 mi	400 yd	3 deaths – Long-tracked tornado family destroyed or damaged 70 farmhouses, several of which were swept clean of debris, leaving only foundations behind. Hundreds of cattle were killed and a train was thrown off its tracks. Tornado also destroyed 32 structures in Coon Rapids, nine of which were homes. 18 injuries were reported along the path and losses were estimated at $100,000.
cat4}}	F4	SSW of St. Cloud to Sauk Rapids to SSE of Rice	Stearns, Benton	MN	22:20–?	25 mi	800 yd	72 deaths – See section on this tornado – 213 people were injured and losses totaled $400,000.
cat2}}	F2	ESE of Oneida	Nemaha	KS	22:30–?	3 mi	200 yd	Tornado injured four children and destroyed several homes.
cat2}}	F2	E of Hubbard to E of Park Rapids	Hubbard	MN	22:30–?	10 mi	200 yd	Tornado injured seven people, downed hundreds of trees, unroofed a few farmhouses, and destroyed a number of barns. As the tornado crossed Long Lake it tossed water 100 ft high.
cat4}}	F4	SW of Little Rock to SW of Buckman	Benton, Morrison	MN	22:50–?	14 mi	200 yd	2 deaths – Tornado formed from the same supercell as the St. Cloud–Sauk Rapids F4. Two entire farms were obliterated and seven people were injured. "Tons" of debris from St. Cloud littered the landscape.
cat2}}	F2	E of Story City	Story	IA	23:00–?	3 mi	70 yd	Tornado caused one injury and unroofed or partly destroyed three homes, one of which lost its upper story. Several barns were destroyed as well.
cat2}}	F2	N of Circleville to E of Wetmore	Jackson, Nemaha	KS	23:30–?	7 mi	50 yd	Tornado injured four people and destroyed four homes, along with stables and barns.
cat2}}	F2	NW of Churdan	Greene	IA	00:00–?			Tornado destroyed several barns.
cat3}}	F3	Lickskillet to Strahan to Wheeler Grove	Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, Pottawattamie	IA	00:15–?	45 mi	100 yd	Long-tracked tornado family destroyed at least 15 homes. Tornado began south of Thurman and passed west of Sidney. Near Sidney a school was destroyed and scattered for 2 mi. At Strahan the tornado destroyed a church and a store. Five homes, a church, and several other structures were damaged or destroyed in Wheeler Grove. Five injuries occurred along the path.
cat4}}	F4	N of Mound City to Burlington Junction	Holt, Nodaway	MO	01:30–?	15 mi	300 yd	6 deaths – Tornado destroyed structures on 15 farmsteads, including four homes that were leveled. 20 injuries were reported.
cat3}}	F3	NW of Bedford to Prescott	Taylor, Adams	IA	01:45–?	20 mi	200 yd	Tornado injured 15 people and destroyed several homes, leaving only scattered pieces of lumber behind.
cat2}}	F2	Blodgett	Scott	MO	03:00–?			3 deaths – Tornado injured two people and destroyed three farmhouses.
cat2}}	F2	W of Orient to E of Greenfield	Adair	IA	03:00–?	5 mi	100 yd	Tornado injured two people and destroyed three farmhouses.
cat3}}	F3	S of Rhome	Wise, Denton	TX	03:45–?	15 mi	300 yd	Tornado produced possible F4–F5 damage to five farmsteads, but little information was available with which to assign a rating higher than F3. 13 injuries were reported along the path, and total losses reached $100,000. One death may have occurred.
cat3}}	F3	SW of Terrell	Kaufman	TX	04:00–?	4 mi	200 yd	Farms were obliterated, possibly at F4 intensity, but information was insufficient with which to assign a rating higher than F3.

April 15 event

F#	Location	County / Parish	State	Time (UTC)	Path length	Max. width	Summary
cat2}}	F2	Island Ford	Rutherford	NC	23:00–?	5 mi		Tornado injured five people and destroyed a few homes.

St. Cloud–Sauk Rapids, Minnesota

4:20 p.m. CST (UTC−06:00) Stearns County, Minnesota

$ ( USD) At 4:20 p.m., a tornado of approximately F4 intensity cut through the heart of Sauk Rapids. It was one of at least four tornadoes that affected the region between 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. that day. It had a maximum width of 1/2 mi and covered an area of 14 mi. As the storm moved across the Mississippi River, it temporarily sucked the river dry.

Impact, aftermath, and recovery

St. Paul Daily Globe]]'' coverage on April 18, 1886

St. Benedict's Hospital in St. Cloud, which was spared by the tornado, became the center of relief efforts following the destruction. The Benedictine nuns who operated the hospital worked 48 hours straight until aid arrived from the nearby towns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Over 50 patients were taken to St. Mary's school and convent in St. Joseph, where the teaching sisters served as nurses.

Before the tornado struck, Sauk Rapids was considered one of the most important towns in Minnesota and a center of business for central Minnesota. It was a blossoming community located on the Mississippi River. However, the tornado changed the economic structure of the entire area, destroying at least 109 commercial and public buildings in Sauk Rapids alone, including every business on Main Street, and causing over $400,000 ($ in ) in damages. After the tornado, St. Cloud became the dominant business center in the region.

Notes

References

Sources

- Total pages: 128

References

{{harvnb. Zurek. 2002
(2004). "Tornado Outbreak Day Sequences: Historic Events and Climatology (1875-2003)". [[American Meteorological Society]].
(5 March 2015). "Enhanced F Scale for Tornado Damage". Storm Prediction Center.
(6 June 2013). "Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF-Scale)".
(2016). "The International Tornado Intensity Scale".
(5 March 2015). "The Online Tornado FAQ (by Roger Edwards, SPC)". [[Storm Prediction Center]].
(August 2008). "The Relation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to Winter Tornado Outbreaks". [[American Meteorological Society]].
(April 2004). "On the Relationship of Tornado Path Length and Width to Intensity". American Meteorological Society.
Seeley, Mark W.. (2006). "Minnesota Weather Almanac". [[Minnesota Historical Society]] press.
Some of the structures the tornado destroyed included an [[Truss bridge. USASC. 1886. USASC. 1886. Rice]], where it killed 11 people in a wedding party, including the groom, when the home they were occupying was destroyed. In all, 72 people were killed by the twister, including 38 in Sauk Rapids and 20 in [[St. Cloud, Minnesota. Hill. 2019
"Minnesota Tornado History and Statistics".
{{harvnb. Welter. 2013
Dominik, John J.. (1986). "That You May Find Healing". St. Cloud Hospital.
"Sauk Rapids History". City of Sauk Rapids.
"Communities In Crisis". [[Stearns County]] History Museum.
"April in the Upper Midwest". Intellicast.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

benton-county,-minnesota f4,-ef4-and-if4-tornadoes natural-disasters-in-minnesota stearns-county,-minnesota 19th-century-tornadoes meteorological-events-in-1886 tornadoes-in-minnesota 1886-in-minnesota 1886-natural-disasters-in-the-united-states april-1886

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