at 9:09 AM by Mallory Schnell

50 Years Since Palm Sunday Outbreak

This past weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the Palm Sunday Outbreak – one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in history. This outbreak took place April 11-12, 1965, and dropped 47 tornadoes that killed more than 270 people in the Midwest. The Palm Sunday Outbreak was a “classic setup”, meaning that forecasters knew far in advance the day would bring dangerous weather.

What is now the National Weather Service for the Northern Indiana region placed all of its nine counties under a tornado warning in what is known as a “blanket tornado warning”. According to UStornadoes.com, this was the first and only time this has occured in the history of the National Weather Service.

So if forecasters knew in advance what to expect, and tornado warnings were issued, why did more than 270 people die as a result of the Palm Sunday Outbreak? Reason: the public did not, and much of it continues to not, understand the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. A tornado warning warrants immediate action that very few people took on Palm Sunday due to misconception of the warnings or because they believed it was a “false alarm” (Capital Weather Gang).

Tornado sirens, social media, and apps have improved relaying warnings to the public, but sociological questions are still being answered. As the Capital Weather Gang put it, the perception of the forecast is often more important than the forecast itself.