Ten years ago today 67 tornadoes tore paths across eastern South Dakota. Todd Heitkamp is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls and called the event dubbed “Tornado Tuesday” a career day….
Heitkamp clearly recalls the tone at the office when forecasters asked that he return to work….
Over 120 tornadoes were reported with storm system in parts of Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. Heitkamp says they lost track of how many warnings they issued that night…
Manchester, a tiny town in Kingsbury County on U-S Highway 14 took a direct hit from the biggest tornado of the night, an F-Four…
Heitkamp says the low number of injuries and no deaths is proof the warning process does it’s job…
The Manchester tornado was notable not only in that it was the largest of the evening, but storm researcher Tim Samaras was able to place a scientific instrument in front of the twister, and measured a 100 millibar pressure drop as the funnel moved over, the reading stands today as the lowest ever recorded in a tornado.