1953 Waco tornado
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.
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. 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 Weather Forecast Office in New Orleans issued a tornado alert covering sections of Central and West Texas. It is believed that the warnings reduced casualties in the San Angelo F4, but had minimal influence on Waco. Eventually, a high-precipitation supercell produced a tornado southwest of Waco.Tornado summary
The tornado first formed around 4:10 p.m. CST about north-northwest of the Lorena community. It quickly began damaging structures, destroying a home near Lorena as it tracked north-northeastward. 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, 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. 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. After devastating downtown Waco and travelling 23 miles, the tornado continued to the north-northeast and dissipated about west of Axtell. While the tornado destroyed homes outside the city, media largely focused on destruction in downtown Waco.