During the afternoon hours of June 16, 1992, a violent tornado, commonly known as the Chandler–Lake Wilson tornado, tore through the town of Chandler and city of Lake Wilson in

Murray County, Minnesota Murray County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 8,179 at the 2020 census. Its county seat is Slayton. History In 1853 the Minnesota Territory legislature created Blue Earth County from unorganized Dakota Territo ...

. The damage in Chandler was extreme enough for the local

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

office to rate the damage F5 on the

Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

Tornado summary

According to the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA), "two violent twisters" caused catastrophic damage in the areas around town of Chandler and city of Lake Wilson in

. Despite being officially referred to as two tornadoes, the tornadoes received a joint, single rating of F5 on the

. The tornado touched down south of Leota and moved northeast as it rapidly intensified. Just east of Leota, two farmsteads were completely destroyed at F5 intensity. At approximately 5:18 pm, the tornado, which had intensified even further, struck Chandler, where it caused extreme damage, leaving half of the town leveled. In Chandler, 36 people were injured, with one person dying from their injuries two months later. The National Weather Service referred to the tornado as a "maxi-tornado" as it struck Chandler. It was documented that in the towns of Chandler and Lake Wilson, the tornado caused at least $27 million (1992 USD), with another $17 million (1992 USD) in damage occurring in rural parts of Murray County. In total, the tornado killed one person, injured over 40 others, and caused at least $50 million (1992 USD) in damage along its track. The tornado had a maximum width of around the Chandler-Lake Wilson area. This was the only F5 tornado to occur in the United States in 1992. In 2019, meteorologist Jen Narramore, who previously worked for

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...

, found several discrepancies with the official publications and records from NOAA, with the

National Climatic Data Center The United States National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), previously known as the National Weather Records Center (NWRC), in Asheville, North Carolina, was the world's largest active archive of weather data. In 2015, the NCDC merged with two other ...

and

Storm Prediction Center The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency that is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), operating under the control of the National Weather Service (NWS), which in turn is part of the National Oceani ...

stating the tornado's path length was only , while the local National Weather Service office states the official path length was . In Narramore's assessment, it was stated the path length was most likely to be approximately , but slightly different than what was listed by the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1992 Chandler-Lake Wilson tornado F5, EF5 and IF5 tornadoes Tornadoes of 1992 Tornadoes in Minnesota

Tornado summary

See also

References