Tornadoes are rare. Out of every thunderstorm in the United States over the entire year, tens of thousands, only around 1,000 tornadoes occur. Given that thunderstorms often produce numerous tornadoes, we can say out of the entirety of tornadoes, only 500-ish produce tornadoes. Of the 1,000 tornadoes per year, very few are of the violent category, EF-4 or EF-5, where around 1-2 occur per year. Therefore, only 5% of storms produce tornadoes, and less than 1% of those tornadic storms produce violent tornadoes.
Nevertheless, they do happen. Since record-keeping began Nebraska has had around half a dozen tornadoes classified as F-5, Iowa with nearly a dozen. Many of these occurred over 50 years ago, the last EF-5 in either state was the Parkersburg, Iowa tornado on May 25, 2008. The last F-5 in Nebraska was the Hastings-Polk F-5 on May 5, 1964.
For a breakdown of the Fujita Scale and it's history, check out this Weather History Special which breaks it down.
In today's installment of This Week in Weather History, we analyze one of those F-5 tornadoes which impacted Cuming and Thurston Counties on April 23, 1908. This tornado would narrowly miss the town of Pender.
CUMING AND THURSTON COUNTIES: A HISTORY
In 1851, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act into law, opening the territories for settlement. By 1854, the territories of Kansas and Nebraska were formally separated. When the state designated counties in 1855, Cuming County became one of the first areas outlined by the state. The county took its name from the then governor of the Nebraska territory, Thomas B. Cuming. When the County was officially organized in 1857, it had several county seats before finally being settled on for West Point. West Point was founded in the 1860s and named because at the time it was the westernmost point of the Elkhorn River that was settled.
While Cuming County had a more traditional history of settlement, Thurston County took a different path as its history became intertwined with the history of the natives of Nebraska. It was organized at the same time as Cuming County, in 1855, but originally it was called "Blackbird County". The name derives from a former Omaha Indian Chief, who according to legend was buried at Blackbird hill in Thurston County. Around the same time, the area of Thurston County was given to the Omaha Indians as a reservation. This reservation was split into two for the Winnebago Reservation.
In 1884, Blackbird County was opened for white settlement. The first settlement was the small community of Athens, which within a few years would be renamed to Pender. In 1887, Blackbird County petitioned to become an official county. When the proposal arrived at the desk of the governor, he vetoed the name Blackbird. Eventually, the county name would be adopted from US Senator John M. Thurston.
In 1900, Cuming County was the more populous county with over 14,000 residents, many of which living in West Point. Meanwhile, Thurston County held a population of over 6,000 residents. Pender had a population of just under 1,000 residents at the time of the tornado in 1908.
APRIL 23, 1908: THE TORNADO
It was a warm, sultry April day. Many residents in Cuming and Thurston Counties commented on this. By the middle of the afternoon, clouds began to grow from the southwest. These clouds were dark and ominous. By noon, families in northern Cuming County were going about their business, keeping an eye to the sky but nothing to worry about. As those families sat down for dinner, the tornado touched down in Cleveland Township around 6 miles southwest of Pender.
Families heard the roar of the tornado as it approached, but it hardly gave them time to react. The Magnuson family were eating dinner when they heard the roar. The Magnusons were Swedish immigrants who moved to Cleveland township eight years prior. The family consisted of three generations, the grandmother Magnuson, Mr. and Mrs. Magnuson, and six sons. By the time of the tornado, three of the sons were in school, and the other three at home. The tornado completely destroyed the home, scattering the family in all directions. Mrs. Magnuson ran to the neighbors, uninjured, for help. Mr. Maguson and his two sons were badly injured, but ultimately survived. Unfortunately, grandma Magnuson and an infant son did not make it, they would be two of the eventual three deaths as the tornado continued northeastward.
Crossing into Thurston County, the tornado leveled a two-story well-built home west of Pender, scattering its contents for hundreds of yards away. The tornado continued its rampage wiping farmsteads off the map before lifting north of the town of Thurston. One photograph from a home was found torn to pieces 35 miles away, a testament to the raw power of the tornado.
Three people, including the two from the Magnuson family, lost their lives in the Pender F-5. Although tornado ratings did not exist in 1908, analysis from modern day based on reports estimated the tornado to have reached F-5 intensity.
