Destructive May 6, 1876, Chicago Storm

Overview

During the evening hours of May 6, 1876, a destructive severe storm caused widespread damage across the then growing city of Chicago. The storm was one of the worst to impact Chicago in its early history. More than 100 buildings were damaged, with damage consisting of collapsed chimneys, broken windows, and lofted sidewalks (which were then wooden planks). A few buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed. Unfortunately, there were 2 fatalities and approximately 31 injuries caused by the storm.

The severe storm that impacted Chicago appeared to be related to a larger outbreak of severe weather. Newspapers across the region reported instances of wind damage and flooding across portions of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.

Wind Damage & Flooding

Map of regional storm reports from the May 6, 1876 storm system

Multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms occurred from eastern Kansas into northern Indiana and southern Michigan from May 5 into May 7. During the overnight hours of May 5 into May 6, a storm impacted Leavenworth, Kansas, causing damage to numerous buildings. Into the morning hours of May 6, flooding was reported in multiple areas, with regional rail traffic halted in some areas due to flooding and washouts. Near Carlinville, Illinois, damage was reported to several houses and a barn.

Map showing the locations of reported damage in Chicago from the May 6, 1876 storm.		Map showing the locations of reported injuries and fatalities in Chicago from the May 6, 1876 storm.

During the afternoon hours of May 6, a storm impacted Ottawa, Illinois, with damaging wind gusts lasting just a few minutes. Scattered damage to a few buildings occurred. Around 4 PM, a storm was reported near Joliet, with skies almost as dark as nighttime. About an hour later at 5 PM, a storm was reported moving into Chicago. The first reports of damage were confined to fences on the then southwest side of the city near the Bridewell Grounds (today’s Cook County Jail near 26th Street and California Avenue). As the storm moved toward the Lake Michigan shore through about 5:15 PM, damage became more significant and widespread. Near Blue Island Avenue, a house was destroyed, causing 1 fatality. Nearby, the Methodist Reaper Mission was destroyed, causing 1 fatality and 4 injuries. Elsewhere in the Bridgeport and Canalport community areas, multiple residences were damaged, including removed roofs, collapsed walls, downed telegraph poles and fences, and lofted sidewalks. The Fuller Street Bridge was damaged by a ship, and 3 additional injuries occurred. Along the Chicago River, stacks of lumber and other goods were blown and scattered. Just to the north in the Near West Side community area, two structures were significantly damaged, but damage was generally more isolated.

Damage in the Near South Side and Loop community areas was also widespread and sometimes significant. The southern end of the Michigan Southern Freight Depot (near today’s LaSalle Street and Polk Street) collapsed, injuring 10 people, some seriously. A chimney collapsed at the M.E. Page & Company candy factory (near today’s Lake Street and Franklin Street), injuring 4 people, one seriously. At the Rock Island Elevator (near today’s Roosevelt Road and Clark Street), a large brick chimney collapsed, causing an injury. A portion of the roof of Wabash Methodist Church toppled onto a nearby structure, and the steeple of Grace Church collapsed. Numerous Chicago landmarks sustained at least minor roof damage, including the Gardner House, Matteson House, Palmer House, Clarence House, Gregg House, John B. Drake House, Exposition Building, South Side Tivoli Beer Hall. An additional 9 injuries occurred across the Chicago Loop. In the Chicago River, a few boats broke free from their moorings, causing damage.

In the Near North Side community area, a few structures had roof damage, and sections of sidewalk were lofted. No injuries or fatalities were reported. Two miles from shore at the water intake crib (later known as the Two-Mile Crib prior to being taken out of service in the 1930s), the tower housing the fog bell and a portion of the main building’s roof were damaged.

Later in the evening of May 6, a passenger train headed southbound between Neoga and Mattoon, Illinois was derailed around 6:15 PM by strong winds. The engineer saw the storm approaching as the train left Neoga, but attempts to outrun the storm were unsuccessful. The train cars tipped over and slid down a small embankment. Approximately 20 people were injured. Nearby, at Sullivan, Illinois, multiple buildings were damaged and lumber at a storage elevator was scattered. Near Indianapolis, a storm uprooted trees at an apple orchard and removed the roof of a school in the New Britton area.

How were damage locations determined?

No official storm reporting infrastructure is known to have existed in the 1800s. Reports of damage had to be pulled from a detailed review of newspaper articles (some digitized, and some on microfilm). In addition, some limited information was added from John P. Finley’s Character of Six Hundred Tornadoes or from the Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer 1875-1876. 

Determining the location of damage in Chicago was particularly challenging. While many descriptions of damage in newspapers included addresses or nearby major intersections, Chicago streets and addresses of 1876 are often not comparable to streets and addresses in use today. Many streets were renamed throughout Chicago’s early history, including a notable renaming effort in 1913. Address numbers were also changed on many streets, most notably during a major renumbering effort in 1909. Many impacted buildings were demolished between this event and today.
 

Newspapers reviewed for this analysis include:

• Chicago Tribune

• Chicago InterOcean

• Chicago Times

• Chicago Daily News

• Chicago Journal

• Bloomington Daily Leader

• Bloomington Weekly Leader

• Bloomington Pantagraph

• Rock Island Daily Argus

• Joliet Signal

• Joliet Weekly Sun

• Kankakee Gazette

• Monmouth Review

• Cairo Bulletin

• Ottawa Free Trader

• Woodstock Sentinel

• Sterling Gazette

• Ottumwa Weekly Courier

• Knoxville Journal

• Marshall County Herald (Lacon, IL)

• Andrew County Republican (Savannah, MO) 

• Jasper County Republican (Rensselaer, IN)

• Leavenworth Weekly Times

• Emporia News

• Holt County Sentinel (Oregon, MO)

• Ligonier National Banner

• Terre Haute Evening Mail

• Indiana State Sentinel

Meteorology and Environment

During the overnight hours of May 5 into May 6, 1876, a frontal zone was located from west-central Illinois to northeastern Illinois, south of the Chicago area. North of the front, periods of showers and thunderstorms were observed. Around the time of the wind damage in Chicago, the front was located between Chicago and Champaign, Illinois, and a weak area of low pressure was possibly located near Peoria.

Surface weather map valid at 7:00 AM local time on May 5, 1876.	Surface weather map valid at 2:00 PM local time on May 5, 1876.	Surface weather map valid at 4:00 PM local time on May 5, 1876.
Surface weather map valid at 9:00 PM local time on May 5, 1876.	Surface weather map valid at 12:00 AM local time on May 6, 1876.	Surface weather map valid at 7:00 AM local time on May 6, 1876.
Surface weather map valid at 2:00 PM local time on May 6, 1876.	Surface weather map valid at 4:00 PM local time on May 6, 1876. Chicago was impacted by damaging winds about 1.5 hours later.	Surface weather map valid at 9:00 PM local time on May 6, 1876.

Detailed information about the environmental conditions on May 6, 1876, are not known due to the limited number of surface weather observations, as well as the lack of weather balloons, radars, and satellites. The indicated depiction of surface weather features such as low pressure, high pressure, and frontal boundaries were first digitized by using the original paper weather maps published in 1876. The location of weather features were then adjusted to reflect additional observations retrieved for primary U.S Signal Service (today’s National Weather Service) sites and volunteer cooperative observers. Despite attempts to improve the surface weather analysis, uncertainty remains. If additional information becomes available from newspapers or weather journals, the best estimate of surface weather conditions occurring on this date could be updated.

Chicago Damage Cause

Was the wind damage in Chicago on May 6, 1876, Caused by a Tornado?

Due to the limited information available from events occurring in the 1800s, it is likely that we will never know for certain the exact causes of damage for places impacted by storms on May 6, 1876. Although more detailed damage information is available for the storm that impacted the city of Chicago, contemporary sources were conflicting. Two comprehensive books on the history of weather and climate of Chicago were published after this event. The first was Climate of Chicago in 1893 by H.A. Hazen, and the second was Weather and Climate of Chicago in 1914 by Cox & Armington. Neither of these publications indicated that a tornado impacted Chicago in May of 1876. In Climate of Chicago, the May 1876 event was indicated as a “severe wind storm” that was “distinguished” from a tornado. In Weather and Climate of Chicago, only the tornado of May 25, 1896, is mentioned. The detailed book History of Chicago 1871-1885 published in 1886 by A.T. Andreas did not mention any tornadoes hitting the city during that time period, but did indicate that the Fuller Street Bridge and the Lincoln Street Church were each “destroyed by a gale” in May 1876.

In contrast, the Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer 1875-1876 indicated the storm event of May 6, 1876, as a "tornado" while discussing the forecast warning services provided throughout the preceding year. The definitive publication on early tornado research in the United States, John P. Finley’s Character of Six Hundred Tornadoes published in 1884, also indicated a tornado at Chicago on this date. Information about the length, path width, and forward velocity were all left blank for the Chicago event, but the pre-event air was mentioned as “sultry” with rain occurring before and hail occurring after the event. The damage path was described as “intervals of no destruction” because the “cloud bounded along the ground like a ball.” The notes about “sultry” air and hail also appear to be contradicted by other available sources. Elsewhere on May 6, 1876, tornadoes were reported in Anna and Carbondale in Illinois, Hamilton County, Indiana, and Leavenworth, Kansas. Dr. Ted Fujita, considered by many to be a well-respected source for Chicago area tornado information, sometimes referred to the May 6, 1876, event as a tornado, but sometimes did not.

Newspapers that published in the days to weeks after the event referred to it as either a “tornado,” a “gale,” or a “cyclone.” In one detailed newspaper account, published by the Bloomington Pantagraph on May 12, it was indicated that strong winds first came from the west, lasting about 5 minutes, followed by light winds and heavy rainfall for about 10 minutes, and then the rainfall stopped, but strong winds came from the east for about 10 minutes. Other accounts of the storm published in newspapers indicated gusty winds off Lake Michigan from the east or northeast right up until the storm hit, after which winds briefly switched to a westerly direction. The majority of newspaper articles that discussed this event did not describe a tornado, but “dark clouds” or a “singular appearance” moving into the city. One article did mention “a tall column having swift rotating motion from right to left” and another mentioned “eight or ten columns grouped together, all whirling” as the storm moved out over Lake Michigan, suggesting a tornado. These descriptions were in the minority, however.

Although the swath of wind damage through the city appeared to generally move from southwest to northeast, it was over a mile wide at times. Digitized paper observations show that a stationary front or warm front remained south of the city during the day and into the evening, with easterly winds off of Lake Michigan. Temperatures north of the front were in the 40s. These surface weather conditions were generally not consistent with weather known to be associated with tornadoes.

What would be expected if this was a tornado?

In certain circumstances, an environment more favorable for tornadoes may move into a particular area just briefly, prior to the tornado, due to a closely passing area of low pressure. In such situations, a warm front or drifting stationary front would pass the location, briefly bringing warmer, more humid air and a change of wind direction. Soon after, a storm with a tornado would arrive followed by a cold front. Without a dense network of observations or data from satellite and radar, small-scale movements of frontal boundaries are often not observable.

Surface weather map valid at 4:00 PM local time on May 6, 1876, about 1.5 hours prior to wind damage occurring in Chicago. This map represents the current best estimate of the positions of low pressure, high pressure, and frontal boundaries, but remains uncertain.		Hypothetical surface weather map valid at approximately the same time as wind damage occurring in Chicago. This map represents a situation where a more favorable air mass for tornadoes briefly reaches the Chicago area.

For this situation to have occurred on May 6, 1876, we would expect observations in or near Chicago to show changes to temperature, dewpoint, and winds. Despite a comprehensive review of available observations taken at the official site in Chicago, a gap still exists between approximately 3:30 PM and 9:00 PM local time. No observations show temperature or wind direction changes we would expect, with cool air moving in off the lake all day. While this time gap may be large enough for a brief tornado-favorable airmass to have moved into Chicago, all anecdotal information reviewed thus far supports cold, non-favorable air remaining in place. The maximum temperature for the Chicago observation location was indicated as “46.38F,” consistent with temperatures that occurred just before midnight and appearing to preclude a brief warm up associated with a tornado favorable environment. Most descriptions of weather mention cold winds off of Lake Michigan up until right before the onset of the storm, after which winds briefly switched from generally easterly to generally westerly. No descriptions have been found which indicate a switch to southerly winds or warmer conditions.

If a tornado was involved with the Chicago area damage occurring on May 6, 1876, it likely could not explain all of the documented damage. Due to the width of the damage swath documented across the city and nearby areas, a combination of one or more tornadoes and one or more straight-line wind areas would be required.

Portions of the handwritten observation form for May 1876 recorded at the Chicago Signal Service office. Note the indicated maximum temperature for May 6 reported as 46.38 F, consistent with warmer temperature later in the evening and not much higher than the sub-daily observations either before or after the damaging wind event around 5 PM. The previous day's maximum temperature value exceeded the indicated sub-daily observations, suggesting that the reported maximum temperature was not simply the largest value reported by the sub-daily observations, but collected by a specially-designed maximum temperature thermometer.

Chart of temperature observations on May 6, 1876, digitized from the handwritten observation form. The approximate time of damaging winds in Chicago, about 5 PM on May 6, is indicated with a red dashed line.

If not a tornado, what was it?

Recent research has found that damaging winds, including those that mimic tornado damage, can occur with thunderstorms that occur in environments thought to be hostile to tornadoes. An emerging topic, such “Gravity Wave Associated Convection” often occurs on the relatively cold side of frontal boundaries -- similar to the environmental conditions that were reported on May 6, 1876. With that said, it is difficult to say with high confidence the exact cause of the Chicago area wind damage on this date.

Advancements

Weather forecasting and weather warnings were very different in 1876 compared to today. The first official weather maps began just 5 years earlier, when a system of synchronized telegraph messages to Washington DC started. Weather maps of the time lacked information about cold fronts, warm fronts, and rainfall that we are accustomed to today, and instead just indicated general areas of low and high pressure. The only weather observations at the time were taken by official Signal Service observers at major cities, by Army employees at forts, and by volunteer private observers. These observations were often just taken a few times a day. The only information that can be ascertained about storm movement and speed from events in 1876 has to be estimated from the times of occurrence written down by observers, if they exist. No organized system existed for telegraphing neighboring cities when severe weather occurred. Watches and warnings for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes generally did not begin in the United States until the mid-1900s.

The US Signal Service daily weather map for May 6, 1876, at 3:35 PM central time. Note the distance between most observation locations and the lack of many surface weather features we are accustomed to on modern weather maps.

Forecasts in 1876 were referred to as “probabilities,” implying the suggestion of the most likely outcome in an uncertain prediction of the future. The term probabilities was later swapped for "indications," before “forecasts” came into use after 1889. Weather forecasts of the time were very general in nature, and covered a large region, in contrast to local, sub-county level forecasting that is common today. For more information about the early history of weather forecasting, see AMS journal article The Early History of Probability Forecasts: Some Extensions and Clarifications, by A.H. Murphy.

The official weather forecasts for the Great Lakes and Midwest region generally indicated cloudy weather with rain, in addition to a breezy and cool easterly or northeasterly wind.

Official "weather probabilities" for May 6, 1876, as published in the Chicago Tribune.		Official "weather probabilities" for May 6, 1876, as published in the Chicago InterOcean.

Notification of hazardous weather in 1876 was mostly confined to warning mariners of potentially dangerous conditions using signal flags. These “cautionary signals” were used to inform ships that potentially dangerous weather was forecasted, urging vigilance on the part of the mariners. According to History of the Signal Service published in 1884, cautionary signals were indicated by a red flag with a black square during the daytime and a red light at night. The original weather map created based upon observations taken around 4:35 PM Eastern Time (3:35 PM in Chicago) showed a cautionary signal in effect about 1.5 hours prior to the storm.

Legend from the US Signal Service daily weather map for May 6, 1876. The map legend indicates that "block at the base of arrow shows that the cautionary signal is hoisted at that station."		Zoomed in screenshot of southern Lake Michigan on the US Signal Service daily weather map for May 6, 1876, at 3:35 PM Central Time. The map shows that cautionary signals were in effect across the area.

Accounts

Below is a selection of newspaper articles discussing the severe weather that occurred on May 6, 1876.

Excerpt from the May 7, 1876, Chicago Times.		Excerpt from the May 7, 1876, Chicago Times.
Excerpt from the May 7, 1876, Chicago Times.		Excerpt from the May 7, 1876, Chicago Times.
Excerpt from the May 7, 1876, Chicago Times.		Excerpt from the May 7, 1876, Chicago Times.
Excerpt from the May 8, 1876, Chicago InterOcean.		Excerpt from the May 8, 1876, Chicago Journal.

Additional Information

Links:

• Other historic Chicago area weather events from the 1800s:
  • May 22, 1855, Des Plaines Tornado Story Map
  • The Great Chicago Fire of 1871
• For more information on Gravity Wave Associated Convection, please see this recent publication in the American Meteorological Society Journal “Weather and Forecasting.”
• NWS Chicago Past Events Page