According to climatologist, "the prevailing winds for Foster County are from the southeast and southwest during the growing season and the northwest during the winter months." At times the atmospheric conditions were such that strong, damaging winds hit the area and caused destruction of property. Here are some of the worst storms that were reported in the Independent.
May 11, 1911:
Storm started out with cyclone and copious rainfall. The sky became darkened about suppertime. Many residents went to their basements. The storm raged for a few minutes and was then followed by .61 inches of rain. Roofs were blown off barns and granaries. It also caused damage to other farm buildings.
June 11, 1914:
High winds caused damage throughout county. Harry Smith house, Haven Township, was turned upside‑down. Barns were moved off their foundations. Seven railroad cars belonging to the Soo Line Railroad were started in motion, eventually pushing the end one off onto the siding. Many roofs were blown off too.
June 24, 1915:
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Nordmore Township was destroyed by high wind. Estimated damage was $2,000.
July 8, 1923
Lack of power sent residents to restaurants to get coffee or food. A metal tank used for watering stock was sailed three miles to another farm. Rain blew in around windows in homes causing damage from the moisture.
July 3, 1935:
Storm struck a narrow strip of farmland 15 miles long between Melville and Bordulac. About 15 barns, windmills, sheds and small buildings were destroyed. Damage to barns estimated to be $50,000.
July 12, 1943:
Twenty‑five percent of the barns in Foster County were leveled. Power was out for 18 hours. Wind velocity was clocked at 75‑80 miles an hours. 1.71 inches of rain fell with the storm. Five persons were injured. The wind hit about 10 p.m. Some of the people were injured from the flying glass. Many trees were jerked out by the roots.
1969:
Wind destroyed some buildings in the county.
1974:
Buildings were knocked down by the high winds.
June 29, 1977
Tornado touched down on the Dan Gross, Sr. farm, six miles southeast of Carrington. It destroyed a 60' x 96' pole barn. It struck about 7:45 p.m. and lasted about five minutes.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 75
During the years of little moisture the wind had a tendency to blow, too‑ with the result being severe dust storms. They usually occurred during the spring and fall. At times the air was so full of soil that cars had to turn their headlights on. Even with that approaching vehicles could not be seen until they were within ten feet in mid‑day. Places near summer fallow were often covered to a depth of from a few feet to several inches‑ especially along the fence lines. Some of the more severe ones were:
May 1931:
Described as the worst dust storm.
June 18, 1933:
Hot winds‑ temperature ranged from 106‑116 degrees.
May 1934:
Cattle suffocated while moving along the highway.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 76
By Ross Bloomquist
When the conditions were right, warm, sunny days and light breezes, whirlwinds could be seen crossing the dusty fields. There were seldom any seen before 11 o'clock in the morning, were most prevalent from two to four in the afternoon and rarely present later when the air began to cool. Somehow or other the uneven heating of the ground by the sun starts the air moving in vertical eddies which often persisted for many minutes. In the fields their structure and motion can be followed by the dust they sucked up from the ground. When a whirlwind is observed in the vicinity coming toward one, it is best to try to stay out of its way.
Once to satisfy my curiosity I deliberately drove my horses and implement into a whirlwind I saw approaching in the west. The whirling clouds of dust was about 30 feet in diameter and rose 50 feet in the air. Besides rotating as a whole I could see several small and higher velocity vortexes spinning along the periphery of the large one. I halted my rig in the expected path of the disturbance, closed my eyes and hung onto my cap. The whirlwind hit with a high-speed blast so thick with dust that I could not see for a moment. Almost immediately a cold wind struck from the opposite direction. It was gone in an instant leaving me in warmer calm air. It was an experience I would not care to repeat except for scientific purposes.
Whirlwinds can occur almost anywhere in places where a bright sun warms the ground. I have seen miniature ones traveling down a city street picking up sand, leaves and paper as they gyrate violently for a minute or two going down the block or across a playground. I have seen them in fields of waving grain. The gentle undulations of the pliable wheat or oats stalks are interrupted by an invisible vortex in the air which flattened the grain in a moving circular pattern. I have seen them rush through a farmyard carrying straw and paper high into the air and blowing the chickens about and ruffling their feathers. Huge ones must exist in the clear warm air where hawks soar upward indefinitely without moving a single feather. The glider pilots call them thermals which lift their fragile crafts miles high in a silent world. The clear air turbulence so feared by airplane pilots may arise from whirlwinds spawned on the ground.
The whirlwinds spinning across the dusty fields on a spring afternoon are not all alike. The one I passed through had a complicated structure, whirlwinds within whirlwinds. The most spectacular ones have a simpler tubular form. They appear to be cylindrical columns of rising rotating air with diameters of 30 to 50 feet going up vertically as much as several thousand feet. Observed from a distance they moved along sedately in the directions of the prevailing breeze. The rotation of the column of air continued all the way up at the same speed with a counterclockwise direction. Apparently warm air close to the surface is pulled in at the base of the column and rises in the vortex.
While working in the fields on a spring like afternoon, I noticed a well-formed whirlwind where the upward motion of the air was evident. The vertical tube made visible by the dust from the plowed field a mile or so away to the southwest extended several hundred feet into the air. It was moving in a generally eastward direction when it encountered and started to pass over an unplowed field where there was no dust to pick up. The dusty column continued to rise and appeared to be separated from the ground. The grassy field was crossed and the column was again picking up dust from another field. When the whirlwind was directly to the south on my position the clear interval half way up the column and kept rising higher and higher slowly while the visible part maintained its tubular conformation. The total height must have been at least a thousand feet when it passed away to the southeast. I was unable to observe its final dissipation.
The uneven heating of the air near the ground produces another atmospheric phenomenon worth watching while working in the fields. Ordinarily, however, it was ignored because it had no effect one way or the other on the work. On sunny days the level land at the far end of the field appeared to be covered with shimmering waves of water.
Sometimes the grove a mile or so away seemed to be floating in a broad lake. On approaching the apparently wet places receded farther away into the distance. The identical phenomenon is observed nowadays on the paved highways where the road ahead seems to be covered with water and the upside down reflections of the oncoming vehicles are seen in the water. It is all an optical illusion caused by the warmer air close to the ground. The light rays coming to the eyes are bent or reflected by this air acting as a sort of lens or prism and what appears to be water is actually sky. The heated air is not all uniform and consequently the ordinary distinct line of the horizon is broken up into a confusion of waves and ripples. They proceed in the same direction as the wind. As one scans the horizon there are two points in exactly opposite directions that the moving air is coming from and going to. These effects are generally absent in the early morning but usually persist until sundown. No waves along the horizon are present on cloudy or rainy days or when the wind velocities are high.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 76