Wednesday Marks 40 Years Since Grand Island’s Deadly “Night of Twisters”

LINCOLN–(KFOR June 3)–Wednesday marks a somber anniversary of when one of the most unique and talked about severe weather events to hit an American city took place that left death and destruction in its wake.

It was June 3, 1980, when a supercell thunderstorm developed and only moved 10 mph or less over a three-hour period that spawned seven tornadoes that ripped through and around Grand Island, 90 miles west of Lincoln.  Two of the tornadoes killed five people.  More than 200 people were hurt and damage totaled $300-million.

Chris Goforth with History Nebraska told KFOR News the storm system was unusual because three of the tornadoes were anticyclonic, meaning that rotated clockwise and crossed over their own paths.  Tornadoes in the Northern Hemisphere rotate cyclonic, or counter-clockwise.

The first of the tornadoes touched down in the Capital Heights area of northwest Grand Island around 8:45pm, while the last of the tornadoes dissipated around 11:30pm to the southeast in rural areas of Hall and Hamilton counties.  The strongest of the seven twisters was an F4 that came in from the east near Fonner Park and moved west before turning south on South Locust Street, damaging or destroying homes and businesses in its path.

Meteorologists, to this day, still talk about the Grand Island tornadoes because it didn’t develop like most supercell thunderstorms usually do.  It was along a stationary boundary where a low-pressure system developed, causing the storm to rotate around the Grand Island area with no forward moving speed.

Damage from the store was buried at Grand Island’s Ryder Park and later renamed Tornado Hill, which has become a popular recreational spot most of the year and sledding destination during the winter.

The storm was also the basis of a 1984 children’s book by Hastings native Ivy Ruckman called “Night of The Twisters,” which also became a made for TV movie in 1996.