Jarrell tornado

In the afternoon hours of May 27, 1997, a large, slow-moving and violent F5 tornado caused extreme damage across portions of the Jarrell, Texas area. Known most frequently as the Jarrell tornado, it killed 27 residents in the Double Creek Estates, which at the time was a small subdivision located to the northwest of Jarrell, and inflicted approximately US$40 million in damages (equivalent to $80M in 2025) during its 13-minute, 5.1-mile (8.2 km) track. It occurred as part of a tornado outbreak across central Texas; it was produced by a supercell that had developed from an unstable airmass and favorable meteorological conditions at the time, including very high convective available potential energy (CAPE) values and warm dewpoints. Several weaker tornadoes prior to the Jarrell tornado touched down and inflicted damage in nearby areas, particularly in Travis and Williamson counties. The National Weather Service office in Fort Worth issued several tornado warnings as a result, and later issued a tornado warning for the area encompassing Jarrell as the tornado-producing supercell approached the town. Shortly thereafter, within the Williamson County line, the tornado first touched down as a landspout before it transitioned into a larger multi-vortex tornado cloaked in dust. The landspout merged with the parent storm’s mesocyclone, becoming a violent mesocyclonic tornado, which then strengthened rapidly as its width grew. As the tornado moved through a neighborhood near Jarrell, it slowed down over the area while reaching its maximum width and producing violent F5-level winds. The tornado slowly moved over the neighborhood for approximately 3 minutes, producing some of the most extreme tornadic wind damage ever recorded. As the tornado left the subdivision, it began to weaken, before dissipating in a forested area. In total, 27 residents of Jarrell, as well as hundreds of cattle, were killed. The tornado left behind...