Weather History

This Day In Weather History

In 1947, the Southern Plains Tri State Tornado ran a 170 mile long marathon from the Texas Panhandle, across Northwest Oklahoma, to extreme South Central Kansas. Starting 5 miles northwest of Pampa, Texas, the giant F5 twister cut track of destruction that averaged nearly a mile wide. At times the vortex was 2 MILES WIDE. The tornado killed 181, injured 970, and caused an estimated $10 million damage. Hardest hit was Woodward, Oklahoma where 107 people were killed and around $6 million damage occurred. A second town hit especially hard was Higgins, Texas which was nearly leveled. In Higgins, 51 were killed and 232 were injured. Glazier, Texas had 17 fatalities and 40 injuries and was literally swept off the map as the town was never rebuilt. The tornado finally dissipated over extreme southwest Kingman County.

In 1919, an outbreak of 12 tornadoes tore through Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, and extreme Southwest Arkansas. Four of the twisters were violent F4s that had tracks ranging from 30 to 50 miles long and from around one half to three quarters of a mile wide. The outbreak killed 92 and injured 412. Damage estimates are unknown.
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