Topic: 50th anniversary of 1957 Fargo ND F5 tornado

[Mike]

As the title suggests it's been 50 years since this deadly tornado struck Fargo.  12 people were killed and 1300 homes destroyed with this F5.  There is a fresh website at www-forum.com/specials/1957tornado that has previously unreleased photos of tornado and damage.  Well worth a look.

Would be interesting to read some posts by members with any comments re this event if anyone has memories of it. 

Fujita had done a report on this tornado but I'm having trouble PDFing it - not so much downloading but the site showing anything to view - anyone got another link to access it?

Mike

[Geoff Thurtell]

Hi Mike,

I think that the correct link is:

http://www.in-forum.com/specials/1957tornado/

An interesting site. It reminds me that my 50th anniversary comes up later this year!!

Geoff

[Geoff Thurtell]

I just watched the WDAY TV film documentary of the Fargo event. Besides the nostalgia hit (the slicked back hair, suits and the formal speech and presentation which were still normal in my earliest memories of TV during the 1960's), it is interesting to see how the event was recorded by some early storm chasers from the University of Illinois and the then US Weather Bureau. Given the technology limitations at the time, they managed to obtain an excellent record of the passage of the tornado through Fargo. I have bookmarked this website so that i can go back and look at more when I have the time.
Geoff