Few people knew the grim reality that would set in on Jarrell, Texas on the morning of May 27th, 1997. It was a day that began like any other late Spring day in Texas: clear skies and warm conditions. In a few short hours, the town of Jarrell would be synonymous with one of the most terrifying F5 tornadoes ever witnessed.
In what has become known as the ''Jarrell tornado," the three-quarter mile wide, F5 twister was unusual in many respects and is the last F5 or EF 5 tornado to hit the state.
The Jarrell tornado was born from a thunderstorm along a cold front that was drapped across central Texas. Unlike most tornadoes that spin up and move east or east-northeast with the parent storm, the tornado that wiped out Jarrell moved southwest, paralleling I-35 for seven and a half miles.
It's forward motion was also extremely slow, almost stationary at times. Below is a radar timeline of the events of that day from the National Weather Service in San Antonio.
ICYMI: Tomorrow is May 27th, exactly 20 years since the infamous Jarrell F5 tornado, which was the last F5 to impact South Central TX. #txwx pic.twitter.com/Zt4Lei0kl3
— NWS San Antonio (@NWSSanAntonio) May 26, 2017
According to several meteorologists, it is the worst F5 tornado damage ever witnessed, even to this day. The slow forward progress of this incredibly intense tornado subjected many structures to catastrophic winds for several minutes completely obliterating whatever was there.
Survey teams in the Double Creek Subdivision near Double Creek Drive and County Road 305 indicated that the wind was so strong that even dirt and grass up to 18 inches deep was scoured and removed. Nothing survived. Reports are that even the plumbing was pulled out of the ground and streets were pulled up from the worst affected areas.
It's impossible to know just how strong the Jarrell tornado got. Tornadoes are ranked based on the amount of damage they do to structures. In the case of Jarrell, the tornado left no traces of debris. Well built brick homes literally vanished with almost no debris remaining.
27 people died in the tornado, almost all of them from the Double Creek Subdivision. The tornado is said to have been impossible to survive if you were above ground.
According to NOAA, the F5 Jarrell tornado is the furthest south an F5 tornado has ever been observed since records have begun. This is likely due to a more maritime environment along the coastal plains of southeast and deep south Texas. No F5 or EF 5 has ever been documented in the Houston area -- although in November 1992, an exceedingly rare F4 tornado destroyed portions of Channelview.
For more mind-boggling information on this massive Texas tornado, read this article from ExtremePlanet.
