Easter has a fascinating history not only religiously, but also meteorologically. The weather always plays a part in every holiday where people get together for celebrations. Today has been fairly inactive in the weather except around Anderson County, TX where hail was reported, but for the most part it has been a great day to be outside. It hasn't always been that way though. There has been a number of tornado outbreaks during the past years of Easter as well as tropical systems and winter weather events. One of the earliest found tornado events that occurred on Easter was the Easter Weekend 1913 Tornado Outbreak Sequence that began March 20th and ended March 24th. In 1913, Easter landed on March 23rd. The number of deaths and injuries have mixed results depending on where you look, but what is known is that two deadly tornadoes did occur. One hit Omaha, Nebraska and another hit Terre Haute, Indiana. Both occurred on Easter Sunday. The most devastating of the two was the Omaha tornado that was rated an F4 where about 150 people perished and hundreds more were injured. What made matters worse was a passing cold front that brought snow to the area after the tornado passed through. The same storm that created the tornado later started a huge dust storm that overwhelmed Topeka, Kansas. The Terre Haute tornado happened later that night causing about 50 deaths. To give you an idea on what the tornado looked like that devastated Omaha, here is an image:
.On April 21, 1957, there was an Easter Sunday outbreak of tornadoes that became known as the 1957 Lubbock Tornado Outbreak that spawned an unknown number of tornadoes, but some of these tornadoes were fairly large. Not much information, if any, are known on how strong these tornadoes were partly because they traveled through rural areas where few people lived. Luckily, there were no fatalities and the number of injuries were low. Little was known on this event to the public until a guy named Jonathan D. Finch did a case study on this event with great details on the tornadoes and the atmospheric setup. He shows how unique this event was because unlike most tornadoes traveling from southwest to northeast, these tornadoes traveled from southeast to northwest. Here is an image of one of the tornadoes on his case study website from a newspaper article:
In 2006, there was yet another Easter tornado outbreak known as the Easter Week 2006 Tornado Outbreak Sequence. This event started on April 13th and ended April 18th dropping 54 tornadoes, the strongest being an F2. On Easter Sunday, which was April 16th, there were 14 determined tornadoes, 2 of which were F2, 3 were F1, and the remaining 9 were F0. Throughout the whole event, there was only 1 fatality, but none occurred on Easter.
The most recent tornado outbreak that occurred during Easter was the April 19-24, 2011 Tornado Outbreak Sequence where at least 89 tornadoes were confirmed and the strongest of them was an EF4. The last day of the event, April 24th, was Easter Sunday and only 11 tornadoes occurred on that day. The strongest on Easter was an EF1 that caused some damage in Arkansas. There were no fatalities during this entire event.
So far Easter seems to be the holiday where tornadoes love to interrupt. However, there are other memorable weather events that have occurred on Easter that are not as devastating as tornadoes are. Winter likes to make an entrance sometimes on Easter and one of those events was way back in 1929 when there was a large amount of snow that fell in the Midwest region of the U.S. Not many other snowy or rainy weather events have been recorded on Easter, but the National Weather Service of La Crosse, Wisconsin was generous enough to post a number of Easter weather events that involved their coverage area. If you would like to view more of these events here is the link: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=arx&storyid=8052&source=0.
There is another force of nature that has shown up a few times around Easter and that is tropical systems. Looking as far back as 1846, there were 3 tropical systems that developed on Easter Sunday. One of them were uncertain because of it being in 1846 and little knowledge was known about tropical cyclones, but there is belief that one made landfall in the Southern Mississippi Valley creating a lot of flooding. During the 1973 Atlantic Hurricane Season there was a tropical depression that developed on Easter Sunday on April 22nd that created no threat as far as recorded history goes. Finally, during the 2003 Atlantic Hurricane Season there was Subtropical Storm Ana that developed on Easter Sunday April 20th. It later made landfall in Bermuda followed by Florida where only 2 fatalities were reported that were caused from the subtropical storm.
Compelling weather history for Easter isn't it? Easter is a unique holiday in the first place because it doesn't occur on the same numbered day as other holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving. It is always in March or April on a Sunday, but the number of the day changes every year. Another interesting fact pertaining to Easter is the island that these guys have been resting on for thousands of years.
That's right! Easter Island Heads or their correct name "moai". The island that these famous statues have been sitting on was named Easter Island because a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen encountered this island on Easter Sunday in 1722 which was on April 5th.
Happy Easter everyone!!!
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