| Manchester, South Dakota |
Article Index for Manchester |
Website Links For Manchester |
Information AboutManchester, South Dakota |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MANCHESTER, SOUTH DAKOTA | |
| towns in south dakota | |
| ghost towns in south dakota | |
|
THE MANCHESTER TORNADO On June 24 , 2003 a classic supercell thunderstorm spawned a tornado over eastern South Dakota. The tornado gradually matured and widened, forming a large "wedge" shape, and achieving an intensity of F4 on the Fujita Scale and a width of between one-half and one mile as it entered Manchester. The Mesocyclone associated with the tornado was tracked by a large number of meteorologists and storm chasers. A small probe was placed directly in the tornado's damage path. The vortex traveled directly over the instrument, and record-breaking meteorological data was obtained by the probe. It managed to survive winds in excess of 260 mph (418 km/h) and measured a barometric pressure fall of around 100 Millibars near the center of the half-mile wide tornado. Manchester was a small, compact town surrounded on all sides by farmland and built largely around the intersection of 427th St. and 47th Avenue in rural Kingsbury County. The tornado struck the intersection dead on, and was wide and powerful enough to destroy literally every building in the town. Miraculously, there were no deaths.1 As of 2007 , the town lies barren and abandoned. There are no plans to rebuild. All that currently remains of Manchester is the slab foundations of demolished houses and the wind-twisted town limits sign, sitting in a sea of empty farmland. Manchester is now an official Natural Disaster Ghost Town . Although empty and depopulated, Manchester has not been "wiped off the map" yet, as it remains on both the government rolls and maps pending the next Federal Census . On Jun 25th, 2007 a granite monument was erected in the ghost town commemorating its history and honoring the residents who had lived there. 2 REFERENCES |
|
|