The weather-disaster set: the crest, the outbreak, the blizzard

1965–2008 · THE FEDERAL RECORD, AT BASIN AND COUNTY STRENGTH

The weather set has three members in the checklist — a crest, an outbreak and a benchmark storm — and the set is worked here at the strength each member's record allows. The crest: the Kankakee's record stage of 13.59 feet near Davis on 11 January 2008, displacing the 13.52 feet of 1985 — the river's record before the record, and the record — with the 1982 Shelby pair (7,650 cubic feet per second on 26 March; 12.98 feet on 24 March) standing behind them; no gauge stands on the town's own creek, and the crest is the basin's, printed as the basin's (the events addendum carries the sequence whole). The outbreak: the Palm Sunday outbreak of 11 April 1965, the benchmark tornado day of northern Indiana, tore across the counties around this one; the township's own share of that day — a track, a farm, a damage line — stands in no source this section reached, and the outbreak enters the set at regional strength with the township share expressly untested, settler the storm-survey record and the town press of that week. The blizzard: January 1978, the benchmark storm — the events addendum carries it whole from the weather service's own history: the coldest, snowiest winter on record at South Bend, 86.1 inches in the month, a 41-inch depth on 30 January. The set's verdict is its sizes: one member at basin strength, one at regional strength with its local share a named residue, one at county strength — and no member inflated past its record.

Sources:

1. U.S. Geological Survey gauge records (Davis and Shelby) and National Weather Service, Northern Indiana — the crest record and the 1978 blizzard history, as dug for this run.
2. this history (this section) — the flood sequence and the blizzard at full size; the Palm Sunday township share as residue, settlers named.