60th Anniversary of 1965 Twin Cities tornado outbreak on May 6

It was a day many of a certain age in the Twin Cities will never forget. For me, it was my first living memory. And it started a lifelong curiosity about storms and a 40-year weather career.

The biggest tornado outbreak in Twin Cities history occurred 60 years ago this year. At least six tornadoes skipped across the western Twin Cities on May 6, 1965. I’ve written extensively about that day here in Updraft.

Next Tuesday evening May 6, 2025 the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society is hosting an event remembering the 1965 Twin Cities tornado outbreak. They’ve asked me to speak at the event talking about my memories and the meteorology of the 1965 tornadoes.

I’ll cover the tornado tracks and intensity and talk a bit about my still vivid memories of that day. Here’s a clip from my Updraft post 10 years ago on my memories of that day.

If you could hook a DVD, or Netflix to my memory banks, it would play back the details May 6, 1965 today in vivid technicolor. The memory of that day is forever burned into my DNA.

I was a preschooler in 1965. I vividly remember a warm spring afternoon, playing in the backyard sunshine as big puffy white clouds billowed high into the afternoon sky. My older brothers and sister came home from school as the deep thunder started to rumble to the southwest of Deephaven.

The rains hit with ferocity, and then the sky turned an eerie, wicked shade of green. Suddenly, huge irregular shaped chunks of hail the size of a fist came pounding out of the sky. We ran inside and grabbed my older brothers football helmets and put them on so we could collect the hail and put it in the freezer. The dull whack of huge hail smacking you on the head with a football helmet on is one sound you don’t forget.

We played like the children we were racing around to pick up the hail — and fill bowls with impressive hailstones destined for the freezer. The incredible thunder and twisted green sky color made it clear something was very, very wrong.

Suddenly the back porch door flew open. My mother screamed the words I’ll never forget:

“You kids get in the basement now. Your father called and said there’s a tornado coming!”

My dad worked at City Hall in downtown Minneapolis. Radio chatter from the Minneapolis police scanners made it clear tornadoes and damage were in progress in the southwest metro, heading right for Deephaven.

We scurried into the basement after stuffing bowls of large hail in the freezer, which was conveniently right next to the basement door. I remember looking out of that classic Minnesota small rectangular basement window as the sky swirled violently overhead. What I now know was a rotating wall cloud with an attached tornado spun overhead, tearing up neighborhoods a half mile away with F4 ferocity. In the distance, strange unnatural sounds made it clear very bad things were happening.

Huge maple trees in the field next door swayed violently as if ready to snap at any moment. The wind gushed with frightening force and sound. What I now understand is that the tornado passed dangerously close to the west of our home, and that the rear flank downdraft winds ripped branches off trees in our neighborhood. We were the lucky ones.

In a matter of minutes the whole event was over for us. Additional tornadoes would touch down that evening, including the devastating and deadly F4 Fridley tornado.

We heard stories of widespread damage nearby, The next day we took a drive to Deephaven School and Cottagewood about half a mile away as the crow files. This photo of damage is typical of damage we saw in nearby Cottagewood.

Look for more coverage of the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Twin Cities tornado outbreak next Tuesday on MPR News.