The 1979 Tornado Outbreak and Manson Storm: An Example of Tornadoes Approaching from the Northwest

Authors

John L. Stanford, Iowa State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Research

Keywords

climatology, meteorology, tornado

Abstract

It is widely believed that tornadoes move from the southwest. However, 30 percent of all Iowa tornadoes move instead from the northwest quadrant, and the majority of summer tornadoes come from this direction in the upper midwest. The greatest recorded outbreak of northwest-type tornadoes occurred on June 28, 1979, when 27 such twisters touched down in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Ten of these were in Iowa, including the destructive Algona and Manson tornadoes. Meteorological information, satellite cloud imagery, and eyewitness accounts of the 1979 outbreak and especially the Manson storm are used here to illustrate this less-well-known class of tornadoes.

Publication Date

September 1982

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

89

Issue

3

First Page

108

Last Page

116

Copyright

©1982 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Stanford, John L. (1982) "The 1979 Tornado Outbreak and Manson Storm: An Example of Tornadoes Approaching from the Northwest," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 89(3), 108-116.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol89/iss3/6