1953 Waco tornado

1953 F5 tornado in Texas May 2025 February 2025 1953 Waco tornado infobox 1/2 300 1953 Downtown Waco damage.webp 1953 Waco, Texas tornado map.jpg Waco Hook Echo.png Clockwise from top: Damage to downtown Waco after the tornado; A radar image of the storms that would produce the tornado; The track of the tornado. May 11, 1953, 4:10 p.m. CST (22:10 UTC) >261 mph kph on F5 114 597 $41 million (1953 USD)nb Losses All losses are in 1953 USD unless otherwise noted.$US 52000000 1953 -4 (US USD) Lorena, Waco, Bellmead and Axtell, Texas Tornado outbreak of May 9–11, 1953 and tornadoes of 1953 On the afternoon of May 11, 1953, a powerful and deadly tornado directly struck the city of Waco, Texas, killing 114 people and injuring 597 more. The tornado was the deadliest to hit Texas since 1900, with the same amount of fatalities but more injuries than the 1902 Goliad, Texas, tornado. The tornado eventually received an F5 rating, one of five in the devastating 1953 tornado season. It was the second deadliest tornado of that season, behind the 1953 Flint–Beecher tornado. It was also the first tornado to be officially rated F5 in the United States.F5 and EF5 Tornadoes of the United States https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html January 13, 2025 Storm Prediction Center Meteorological synopsis May 11 was a warm, moist day, with dewpoints in the lower 70s and temperatures ranging from the mid 70s inland to low 80s along the coast. Storms earlier near Abilene had produced outflow boundaries, and those boundaries were thought to have an effect on tornadogenesis later on by creating enhanced wind shear.6 October 2011 Remembering the May 11, 1953, Waco tornado, the deadliest tornado in Texas since 1900 http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/?n=wacotormay1953 live https://web.archive.org/web/20160611024841/http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/?n=wacotormay1953 11 June 2016 19 May 2016 National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office Dallas/Fort Worth, TX National Weather Service Eventually, storms developed along a dryline draped over much of central Texas, with one storm producing an F4 in San Angelo, killing 13 people. Due to conducive conditions for severe weather, the U.S. Weather Bureau (later the National Weather Service) Weather Forecast Office in New Orleans issued a tornado alert covering sections of Central and West Texas.Sawyer Amanda Waco Tornado http://wacohistory.org/items/show/53 live https://web.archive.org/web/20160611020157/http://wacohistory.org/items/show/53 11 June 2016 25 May 2016 Waco History Baylor UniversityColeman Timothy A. Knupp Kevin R. Spann James James Spann Elliott J. B. Peters Brian May 2011 The History (and Future) of Tornado Warning Dissemination in the United States Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 92 5 570 2011BAMS...92..567C 10.1175/2010BAMS3062.1 free It is believed that the warnings reduced casualties in the San Angelo F4, but had minimal influence on Waco.Perry Joseph November 1988 International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/downloads/ijems/articles/tornadoes%20over%20taxes%20a%20study%20of%20waco%20and%20san%20angelo%20in%20disas.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20060828220251/http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/IJEMS/ARTICLES/Tornadoes%20over%20Taxes%20A%20study%20of%20Waco%20and%20San%20Angelo%20in%20Disas.pdf dead August 28, 2006 January 10, 2024 FEMA Eventually, a high-precipitation supercell produced a tornado southwest of Waco. Tornado summary left|thumb|An aerial view of Waco's downtown area after the tornado. The tornado first formed around 4:10 p.m. CST (22:10 UTC) about 3 mi 0 in north-northwest of the Lorena community. It quickly began damaging structures, destroying a home near Lorena as it tracked north-northeastward.Grazulis 1993 970 The tornado produced F5 damage outside of the city of Waco. As it neared Waco, operators of weather radar at Texas A&M University detected a hook echo in association with the parent supercell. This was one of the first times that radar linked tornadogenesis with hook-echo signatures. However, because heavy rain obscured the tornado, it was largely invisible to people in its path. The high-precipitation nature of the parent storm may have heightened the death toll in Waco by delaying appropriate action. The time of day might also have increased the death toll, as the tornado struck downtown at the end of the work day. The storm also generated baseball-sized hail in its path. The tornado passed close to Hewitt before entering downtown Waco. As the thunderstorm began pounding the city with rain, many people on the streets crowded into local buildings for shelter, yet few of the buildings in downtown Waco were constructed sturdily enough to withstand the winds, so they collapsed almost immediately. Thirty people died in the R. T. Dennis building alone, and five others died while in their cars. Newer buildings with steel reinforcement, including the 22-story Amicable office building (now called the ALICO Building), weathered the storm. The Dr Pepper bottling plant, today the Dr Pepper Museum, also remained standing but sustained damage. Bricks from the collapsed structures piled up in the street to a depth of 5 ft m out in. Some survivors were trapped under rubble for 14 or more hours; numerous bodies remained buried beneath piles of rubble, and for many days were unaccounted for.Grazulis 1993 971 After devastating downtown Waco and travelling 23 miles, the tornado continued to the north-northeast and dissipated about 5 mi 0 in west of Axtell. While the tornado destroyed homes outside the city, media largely focused on destruction in downtown Waco. Aftermath thumb|A tornado damage on the Dr Pepper Museum, the lighter bricks are the new walls following the tornado. In all, 114 deaths occurred in the Waco area, with 597 injured, making it the deadliest tornado in Texas history.US Department of Commerce NOAA A list of the top 10 worst tornadoes in Texas history https://www.weather.gov/ama/top10_tornadoes 2025-01-23 www.weather.gov EN-US Damage costs were estimated at around $51 million. The tornado destroyed 196 businesses and factories.Young John January 10, 1985 The ALICO Building: A Long, Tall Texan Waco Tribune-Herald 150 homes were wrecked. Over 2,000 cars sustained at least some damage. The city received about $9 million (1953 USD) to help with recovery efforts, however poor organization proved to be a challenge. Initially, the tornado also severed communications between downtown Waco and outlying areas, so assistance was slow to arrive.May 2013 Looking Back at the Waco Tornado of 1953 and the Lessons Learned... http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/temo/archives/2013/Vol60No5/articles/article2.htm dead https://web.archive.org/web/20160521140327/http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/temo/archives/2013/Vol60No5/articles/article2.htm 21 May 2016 25 May 2016 Texas Emergency Management Online Texas Department of Public Safety 60 5 Some survivors waited 14 hours to be rescued, and bodies took days to be recovered. The chaotic relief efforts eventually spurred greater coordination between civilians and local governments, leading to the development of civil defense. Within a week, reconstruction and rehabilitation had begun.Perry Joseph B. 1988-11-01 Tornadoes over Texas: A Study of Waco and San Angelo in Disaster and its Impact upon the Study of Disaster https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/028072708800600304 International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters en 6 3 253–281 10.1177/028072708800600304 0280-7270 subscription Notably, the Waco event was one of the first instances that proved the effectiveness of radar in tracking tornadogenesis; coincidentally, another such case occurred later in the same year. A retrospective study of the tornado that struck Worcester, Massachusetts, on June 9 revealed that, as at Waco, local radar detected the hook echo that signified the tornado. Researchers concluded that improved communications, coupled with the formation of radar coverage, could lead to accurate tornado warnings, thereby reducing loss of life in future storms. This task proved especially important following the devastating loss of life at Waco and Worcester, along with the June 8 F5 tornado in Flint, Michigan, in the same year.Corfidi Stephen 13 February 2010 A Brief History of the Storm Prediction Center http://www.spc.noaa.gov/history/early.html live https://web.archive.org/web/20160624003328/http://www.spc.noaa.gov/history/early.html 24 June 2016 27 May 2016 NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center Storm Prediction Center The state of Texas supported the implementation of 20 radar facilities, each with a 200 mi -wide mid radius, that proved successful in reducing death tolls in later tornadoes.Grazulis 2001 90 The system was known as the Texas Radar Tornado Warning Network and also included communications between weather officials, storm spotters, and local officials. Thus the Waco tornado helped catalyze development of a nationwide severe weather warning system. Some areas never fully recovered from the tornado. In addition, a memorial was constructed to honor the fatalities of the tornado. 2021-11-08 Waco Tornado Memorial https://wacotexashistoryinpictures.com/2021/11/08/waco-tornado-memorial/ 2025-01-06 Waco, Texas History in Pictures en See also List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks List of tornadoes striking downtown areas 1997 Jarrell tornado – an F5 tornado that caused some of the most intense tornado damage ever seen in Texas Notes References Sources Grazulis Thomas P. Thomas P. Grazulis Significant Tornadoes, 1680–1991: a Chronology and Analysis of Events July 1993 The Tornado Project of Environmental Films St. Johnsbury 1-879362-03-1 Grazulis Thomas P. Thomas P. Grazulis The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm https://archive.org/details/tornadonaturesul0000graz registration 2001 University of Oklahoma Press Norman 978-0-8061-3538-0 141 1953-05-11 05-11 1953-05-11 Category:History of Waco, Texas Category:1953 natural disasters in the United States Category:May 1953 in the United States