4. No one was killed and only several major injuries occurred among the approximately one thousand shoppers who were in the mall. The tornadoes pictured here were part of the Red River Valley Outbreak, the biggest event of that year. Apr 8, 2009 #1 NWS OUN has put up a nice page for the 30th anniversary of this monster: . These are 40 before/after pairings, as he shot dramatically injured locations . Tornado F-scale ratings prior to 1950, as well as most tornado data are referenced from Significant Tornadoes, 1680-1991 by T. P. Grazulis. During this interval, the tornado was photographed by Professor Joe Henderson of Midwestern State University from the Ligon Coliseum (Tornado Track Figure; Location #7) and by Troy Glover from the roof of the Bethania Hospital (Tornado Track Figure; Location #8). The police chief and county sheriff conferred and dispatched patrol cars to the southwest edge of town to watch for the approaching storm. . Eyewitnesses described details of the storm differently, but they were unanimous on one point -- it was an awesome, terrifying experience beyond anything they had encountered before. The tornado's worst winds generally missed the Sikes Senter Shopping Mall to the South, but a few of the stores were heavily damaged and many cars in the mall parking lot were blown some distance and stacked on top of each other. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The formation of the tornado and its movement toward the Memorial Stadium and McNiel Junior High School were captured by Wolfgang Lange from the front of his apartment complex which was across the street from school building (Tornado Track Figure; Location #2). Rampaging killer tornadoes and devastating floodwaters brought unparalleled tragedy to groups of communities in the Low Rolling Plains and the Upper Coast of Texas during April. 3. Total property damage in Wichita Falls was estimated at $400,000,000 (in 1979 dollars). In the latter Blacklock photographs, the gust front and associated strong west winds to the south of the tornado can be seen producing waves on Lake Wichita and kicking up spray from the lake. The tornado just missed two busloads of students who were returning from a game in Burkburnett. About the time the tornado entered town, it changed appearance, becoming one large black cloud of condensation and debris. Several homes were demolished, and a number of barns were partially destroyed. One somewhat unique characteristic of the damage was the wide swath F4 damage; many violent tornadoes produce only a narrow swath of their most intense damage. ), June 6, 1936 - A tornado touched down at 5:20 pm CST and moved southeastward over a path of 440 yards wide by four miles long caused damage of $50,000 in Wichita Falls and injured two people, although one person may have been hurt due to a lightning strike. After extensive engineering analysis of the winds necessary to produce the observed structural failure to those buildings, it was concluded that all of the damage could have been produced by winds in the upper part of the F4 range (230 - 260 mph). Some of these people had stopped their cars under an overpass on the highway, seeking shelter from the storm. One of the tornadoes, having a width that varied from 1/2 to 1 1/2 miles, cut a swath of devastation across the southern sector of Wichita Falls in less than 30 minutes, killing 42 persons, injuring more than 1700, and burying dozens of city blocks under tons of debris. In Texas: Clay, Foard, Wichita and Wilbarger; and in Oklahoma: Carter, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Jefferson, Pottawatomie, Stephens and Tillman. Some of these people attempted to run to their cars from the mall. Submit a Spot Forecast Flood Warnings Tornado Understand a Tornado: A tornado is a violently rotating column of air extending from the base of a thunderstorm down to the ground. Meanwhile, behind the dry line and cool front in the High Plains, the atmosphere quickly stabilized, and drying out was evident in the lower half of the atmosphere below 500 mb (Figure 26). Lighter damage occurred outside of the AFB and no hail was observed. After taking his last picture of the approaching tornado, Mr. Lange retreated to the apartment complex laundry room and hid between heavy commercial washers and dryers, escaping with only minor injuries. A sharp temperature gradient immediately preceded the movement of the drier air into the region at 850 mb (Figure 20), while at 700 mb the axis of maximum winds was positioned directly overhead the upper Red River valley (Figure 21) and appreciable vertical motion was evident (Figure 22). A furniture warehouse was also destroyed when severe winds tore the back wall and roof off of the building. The twister, which had a wide funnel, shrouded the community in darkness as it swept eastward south of Vernon and along the east side of the city, resulting in millions of dollars in damage and 11 directly killed by the tornado (10 in Vernon and 1 in Lockett, TX). Near the center of the tornado and about a half mile south of the mall, a church was demolished with one person killed inside the building. '", "When the day had ended, the tornadoes had left in their wake a tragically high toll -- 56 dead and 1916 injured. July 21, 1961 - A small, weak tornado touched down briefly in the eastern part of Wichita Falls, about 3 miles from the airport. Sep 18, 2004. A small home was swept away in the affected area, and factories and warehouses were unroofed. The following severe weather account is by Gene Moore. At the surface, an already strong low pressure area in southeast Colorado was beginning to deepen further, and a warm front was starting to lift northward from central Texas. As the much drier air whipped eastward out of the southern High Plains just after noon, thunderstorms, some of which were very heavy, boiled up in parts of the eastern High Plains and quickly spilled over into the Low Rolling Plains. National Weather Service Summer Weather Safety Property damage in the affected areas included 225 homes destroyed, with 50 homes suffering major damage, 200 homes incurring minor damage, and 16 other building receiving major damage. Heavy lake effect snow, strong winds, and reduced visibilities continue downwind of the Great Lakes. The northeastern mesocyclone in the mesocyclone pair was the occluding parent circulation of the Seymour tornado while the southwestern mesocyclone in the pair was the developing parent circulation of the Wichita Falls tornado. It inflicted additional F0-F2 damage south of Dean and Byers, but no more fatalities occurred. Golfball-size hail fell prior to and immediately after the tornado passed along a track that took it into Oklahoma (where it dissipated near Waurika). It looked killer from the beginning. 128 followers. Driving north on Texas 267 we witnessed the Thalia tornado. In the Wichita Falls area, damage occurred to ~75 homes, 15 trailer homes, high school, and numerous outbuildings. The tornado was photographed from the south during this period by Pat Blacklock location #5). Twenty-five of the deaths were. The deadliest tornadoes to strike in Texas in 26 years ravaged parts of four communities near the Red River on April 10, taking 53 lives, injuring 1808, and causing damage worth $427 million1. Two barns were also destroyed and scattered across a field. As the tornado crossed Kemp Boulevard in Wichita Falls, several commercial businesses, including a restaurant, were destroyed with several additional fatalities. A Doppler radar view of the three supercells is available. April 26, 1962 - This tornado initially touched down at 10:45 pmCST on the Sheppard Access Road near Sheppard AFB, damaging several cars, and destroying a a 100 x 30 foot metal building at a motor company. Eddie complained, but kept fighting the wheel. ", "When the giant tornado struck Wichita Falls just before 6:00 p.m., most people were not surprised. Well-built modern houses, in general, offer fairly good protection from tornadoes. The inner hallways would have been the only relatively safe shelter in the building. Three people were killed in the restaurant. ), April 20, 1951 - A small, brief tornado touched down near Wichita Falls and was accompanied by light hail. Why the Red River Valley between Childress and Bowie received the most severe outbreak of thunderstorms is explained by Figures 19-26. The collingsworth family is a southern gospel /inspirational group started by phil and kim collingsworth and features their family as the group. Wichita Falls plagued by tornadoes on April 10, 1979 A tornado set down at 5:50 p.m. about three miles east-northeast of Holliday. The tornado developed on the extreme northeast side of Seymour and moved northeast to about 2 miles north-northeast of Maybelle. A wind maximum gusting to 65 knots moved over Guadalupe Peak recording station in far southwest Texas; this triggered our departure. Aviation Weather The storm that produced an EF-4 tornado a mile wide would ultimately leave over fifty people dead, displace one fifth of Wichita Falls' population, and change the landscape of our city forever. Severe, tornado-producing, thunderstorms erupted along the dry line and moved eastward along and north of the warm front, continuing into the night in central and northeast Oklahoma. This was the most spectacular event I had ever witnessed to date. The heaviest damage in the apartments occurred in the second story of two-story buildings. US Dept of Commerce Barely one week later, phenomenally great amounts of rainfall poured on the southeastern sector of the State, taking 4 lives and inundating parts of numerous communities. One group of violent thunderstorms roared across the northern Low Rolling Plains late that afternoon and spawned a series of tornadoes that ripped through four Texas communities. A destructive and deadly tornado outbreak impacted the Red River Valley on April 10, 1979. About 1540 CST (3:40 PM), a tornado devastated the southeastern portion of Vernon, TX (11 fatalities). On that day, at least 13 separate tornadoes touched down in the Texas/Oklahoma area, striking Wichita Falls, Vernon, Seymour, and a number of other towns. The police chief and sheriff later said the approaching storm did not look like a normal twister, but appeared as a thick, dark mass of clouds low to the ground and difficult to see because of the heavy rain, hail, and low cloud base. A storm appeared on the horizon that had developed far to our south near Abilene. View looking southwest at the approaching tornado northeast of Wichita Falls, Texas. Frank Gohlke's portfolio of 40 black and white photographs, which capture the devastation of the 1979 Wichita Falls Tornado and the landscape a year later, will be on exhibition to mark the anniversary of Terrible Tuesday, April 10, 1979. In addition, 93 mobile homes were devastated. Nationwide, Current Conditions Wind gusts to 100 mph were observed at the observation site. The tornado moved eastward, was a visible as a column of dust that extended from the ground to the base of its parent thunderstorm, and was probably a landspout tornado. Wichita Falls(/wtt/WITCH-i-tah) is a city in and the seat of governmentof Wichita County, Texas, United States. The wide swath of damage can also be seen by viewing the NASA aerial photographs (aerial photos 1-10 on the damage photo tab) and the other aerial photographs (photos 7 & 8 on the damage photo tab). National Weather Service Tornado of Life Jay Baruch 2022-08-30 Stories from the ER: a doctor shows how empathy, creativity, and imagination are the cornerstones of clinical care. May 23, 1888 - A tornado moved northeastward and passed 6 miles west of Wichita Falls during the evening of May 23, 1888. In particular, note the sharp decline in reflectivity near the genesis time and during the life of the Wichita Falls tornado with maximum values less than 45 dBZ for a brief period. The third member of the family formed near Waurika, Oklahoma, at around 8:00p.m. Severe Weather Safety But as the day progressed, and the storms began to form, a good day turned into a bad day. My chase partner for the day was Eddie Sims who had chased for years with Jim Leonard. The tornado cut through a field and went into a housing addition on the southwest edge of Sheppard AFB. Wolfgang Lange, View looking southwest near Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls, Texas at the approaching tornado. This image was taken as the tornado widened and approached our position. We sat up to photograph to the east of the tornado and shot back west and north as it passed. Several strong to violent tornadoes touched down throughout the region that day. Elizabeth was born on January. Joe Landon Haney. The effects of passage of both the warm front from the Gulf and later the dry line from the west were pronounced at points like Abilene, where rapidly falling surface pressures, a soaring temperature, and a sudden plunge in dew point (signaling the arrival of the dry line) identified well the events that combined to cause devastation farther to the north a few hours later (Figure 18). During this time I navigated and Eddie drove. those all. There were 59 reported tornados on the ground in the . McNiel Junior High, a new concrete/steel-reinforced building was not built well enough to provide safe shelter from the tornado. View looking west-northwest from south shore of Lake Wichita at the tornado approaching Wichita Falls, Texas. Hail to 1.75 inches was also reported south of the city. 15:55 F2. The Wichita Falls tornado of April 10, 1979 was one of thirteen tornadoes which rampaged across parts of north Texas and Oklahoma that "Terrible Tuesday." This over one mile-wide beast. Further to the northeast we could see a very large tornado with reddish suction spots rotating about the circulation. We were on our own. Storm Spotter Training Radar warnings and alerts from the Weather Bureau office were credited with saving many lives. Averages and Records Special Weather Statements The F5 storm tore through Wichita and Andover, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. On September 25th, 2000, 11 year old Christopher Morris was found in the dishwasher of his family home which was in Sheppard Air Force Base base housing. 1 A tornado struck Waco and McLennan County on May 11, 1953, inflicting 114 deaths, 597 injuries, and damages of $4i.2 million. A woman was injured when her truck rolled into the ditch in which she was taking cover. Over 3,000 homes were destroyed and another 1,000 were damaged, and over 1,000 apartment units/ condominiums were destroyed and another 130 damaged. Daily Weather History Select western north Texas tornado statistics by decade, county or city from the menus or maps below. Wichita Falls has had three major tornado strikes in its history. 38 On April 10, 1979, a series of deadly tornadoes broke out near the Texas-Oklahoma border. A mobile home was destroyed near Faxson, resulting in two serious injuries. Tornado Database Such a total would mean that between 10% and 20% of the population of the city was displaced by the tornado. The most active portion of the advancing dry line traversed this sector of the Low Rolling Plains at precisely the time of occurrence of the tornado outbreak (Figure 19). We continued south passing a damage path across the highway from the Harrold tornado. Other homes in the area were damaged. Daily Weather History Severe Weather Safety A number of barns were partially destroyed tornado entered town, it changed appearance, becoming one black... Good day turned into a bad day stopped their cars from the.! 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