Central Texas tornado outbreak

Infobox tornado outbreak|name=Central Texas tornado outbreak
date=May 27, 1997
duration=13.5 hours
fujitascale=F5
tornadoes=16 confirmed
total damages (USD)=>$190 million 2005 USD
total fatalities=29
areas affected=Central Texas

The Central Texas tornado outbreak was an unusual tornado outbreak in Central Texas which occurred on May 27, 1997. The F5 tornado that struck the town of Jarrell, Texas killed 27 people out of 1319 residents [ [http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ewx/html/wxevent/1997to1999/may27event.htm May 27, 1997 Severe Weather Event - National Weather Service Forecast Office - WFO, Austin/San Antonio, Texas ] ] . The tornado was 3/4 of a mile (1.2 km) wide and tracked across the ground for 7.6 miles (12.2 km)http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/assessments/pdfs/jarrell.pdf] . Double Creek Estates, a subdivision of Jarrell, was literally wiped off the map with all 38 homes and several mobile homes destroyed.

Meteorological synopsis

In the early morning hours of May 27 a large Mesoscale Convective Complex developed over Eastern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. A "gravity wave" or outflow boundary was generated by this system and stalled out over Central Texas. This was oriented from the northeast to the southwest, causing the movement of the supercells later on to be to the southwest, which is extremely unusual. Also unusual on this day was the low shear and extreme instability.

Confirmed tornadoes

F5 Jarrell Tornado

Initially a weak pencil-like tornado near the Bell-Williamson County line, the funnel rapidly intensified into a 3/4 mile wide multi-vortex storm at around 3:45 PM CDT.

Its first damage occurred three minutes later at 3:48 PM CDT in the northwestern portion of Jarrell striking Double Creek Estates. It later moved into a wooded area before dissipating after damaging numerous trees.

Grass and dirt in fields near Jarrell were ripped up out of the ground to a depth of 18 in or (50 cm). When the tornado crossed county roads outside Jarrell, it ripped 500 feet (150m) of asphalt off the roads.

About 40 structures were completely destroyed by the tornado and dozens of vehicles were lifted in the air and tossed, some thrown more than half a mile. Many researchers, after reviewing aerial damage photographs of Double Creek Estates, considered the Jarrell storm to be the most violent tornado, in terms of damage intensity, that they had ever seen. Most of the homes in the tornadoes path were well-constructed and bolted to their foundations, but even so the tornado left only the slab foundations. [ [http://www.k5kj.net/jarrell.htm Jarrell, Texas Tornado Damage - May 27, 1997 ] ] Several entire families were killed in the tornado, including all five members of the Igo family and all four members of the Moehring family. [ [http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.usatoday.com/weather/photos/jarrellt.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wtxtrcvr.htm&h=501&w=400&sz=31&hl=en&start=1&sig2=4hSJU728ePCmPTBhfXZ55A&um=1&tbnid=OYcnif6ZCMLpVM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=104&ei=nydySI-DEZe8iAGir7iNAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2Bjarrell%2Btornado%2Bmoehring%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG Google Image Result for http://images.usatoday.com/weather/photos/jarrellt.jpg ] ]

There were 27 human fatalities in the Double Creek subdivision. In addition, about 300 cattle were killed by the storm.

About 10 minutes prior to the main event, eye-witnesses spotted additional tornadoes north and west of Jarrell.

ee also

*List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

References

External links

* [http://www.weather.gov/os/assessments/pdfs/jarrell.pdf National Weather Service Assessment (PDF)]
* [http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ewx/html/wxevent/1997to1999/may27event.htm Summary of Weather Event of May 27, 1997] (NWS)
* [http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/data/pdfs/ctrltx.pdf Aerial Damage Survey of the Central Texas Tornadoes of May 27, 1997] (PDF) (National Weather Service), includes discussion and map of the tornado's track
* [http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/txtornadoes/texastornadoes.html Texas Tornadoes] (National Climatic Data Center)
* [http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/misc/970527.html Satellite imagery] (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
* [http://www.stormtrack.org/library/logs/chase116.html Storm chaser Lon Curtis's chase log of the event]