SPC Stats

Path length: 3.8 miles

Width:  60 yards

Fatalities:  1

Injuries:  15

Rating:  F3

County:  Stearns

Tornado Path

Click Map To Enlarge

SPC coordinates:  Start: 45.53 / -94.22   End:  45.58 / -94.15      

Note:  Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.

A total of nine tornadoes are a part of the SPC Database for September 3, 1980. Four were in Stearns County, MN with the strongest an F3 that skipped from five miles SW of St. Cloud, passing through the city and lifting NE of town. There was tremendous damage at Bel Clare Acres.  Thirteen mobile homes were destroyed and there was one fatality:  A 15-month-old girl.

Additional damage occurred at Angus Acres in Waite Park. Six family homes, 14 mobile homes and 16 apartments were destroyed with more than 165 more houses damaged.  Sixty homes damaged in St. Cloud.   

Newspaper Clippings

Discrepancies:

We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the September 1980 Storm Data Publication and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and found the following differences:

Path Length:

  • SPC/NCDC have a 3.8 mile path length.
  • Grazulis and Storm Data have a length at 5 miles.

      Sources:

      The Storm Prediction Center

      NCDC Storm Events Database

      September 1980 Storm Data Publication

      newspapers.com

      Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 1227.

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