Per the NWS Twin Cities, this tornado tracked 67 miles with a maximum width of 2200 yards (1.25 miles). There were 19 injuries and 1 fatality reported.
The tornado began 7 miles east of Avoca in Murray County and traveled through Cottonwood, Brown, extreme Northwest Watonwan, and Northwest Blue Earth County. It lifted 4 miles east of Courtland in Nicollet County.
NWS Summary Information from Storm Data
A strong tornado that began in Murray County tracked across Cottonwood County and then further northeast. The tornado destroyed numerous farms, farm equipment, buildings, trees, power lines and poles, vehicles, and other structures in its path. A vehicle was tossed a hundred yards as it hit the first farm in southwest Cottonwood County. People in the basement of the house on this farm received minor injuries. The tornado also destroyed a church near Jeffers, and destroyed numerous homes in the southern part of Comfrey, a city which is only partly in Cottonwood County.
The tornado ripped through the village of Comfrey (Brown County), destroying a grain elevator and damaging 75% of the town. Much of downtown Comfrey destroyed, including the town hall. School heavily damaged. 100 people made homeless. 50 homes destroyed. 130 farmsteads damaged or destroyed in Brown county. 500 dairy cows killed. One man critically injured in collapse of farmstead northwest of the town of Hanska. He died the next day. 35 buildings destroyed or damaged in far Northwest Blue Earth county. Damage estimate estimated. Property damage to extreme northwest Blue Earth county across Cambria township estimated at 2 million. Property damage to extreme northwest Watonwan county estimated at 245 thousand.
Discrepancies:
We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the March 1998 Storm Data Publication and the NWS Twin Cities Summary of the event and found the following differences:
Path Length:
- SPC/NCDC have the length at 73.5 miles.
- The NWS Summary states the tornado tracked 67 miles.
- Storm Data has conflicting information. In a blurb at the beginning of the document, they say the path length was 73 miles. But in the county breakdown, provided by the NWS, it says the track was 67 miles.
Max Width:
- SPC has a max width of 1500 yards.
- The remaining sources list a max width of 2200 yards (1.25 miles).
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