These maps are called constant pressure maps because instead of measuring altitude in height, they measure it in pressure (recall that air becomes less dense with altitude. Air pressure also decreases with height because there are less air molecules above to exert downward pressure). Thousands of homes sustained damage and several hundred were completely destroyed. See more ideas about lubbock, tornado, lubbock texas. Jetstream At 8:15, local radar indicated a hook echo with strong rotation, prompting a tornado warning to be issued for Lubbock and Crosby counties. It is also the most recent F5 tornado to have struck a central business district of a … 49 years later, some buildings still bear the scars of the two tornadoes that touched down within city limits that day. The map shows a trough of low pressure across the northwest United States (heights decrease from 5880 meters over the Gulf of Mexico to 5460 meters near California and Oregon. While thunderstorms often form along advancing drylines during the afternoon and can produce large hail and even tornadoes, thunderstorms that form along retreating drylines are much less frequent, and only rarely produce tornadoes. 7:30 pm: Forecasts were revised to include thunderstorm activity for Lubbock and vicinity, and transmitted over the weather wire. Message relayed by Fire Department operator. Over time, this echo grows as it slowly moves off to the north and east. We are Facebook's largest repository of Lubbock photographs. The tornado then moved north toward the airport, where at 10:00 pm, anemometers were already reading winds of 77 knots (approximately 90 miles per hour (140 km/h). The tornado, actually the second of two that struck the city that night, touched down around 9:30 in the evening southwest of downtown and moved Although surface observations in West Texas were sparse in 1970, they did manage to pinpoint the area of confluence (air coming together) associated with the dryline to be located between Reese AFB, with a light west wind and the Lubbock airport, with a south wind. Local Climate Products That’s more than $1 billion in modern money. Map of tornado path | COURTESY: Weatherwise magazine via NWS Lubbock. Questions? For more information on these balloons please click here. The wind speed and direction can be seen on the right hand side of each sounding. When there is not a strong storm system bringing winds that will overwhelm the dryline, the dryline will move east (advance) during the day as the air heats up and then will move back to the west (retreat) during the evening. The 7:00 pm sounding observation at Amarillo indicated a tropopause of 48,000 ft, an increase of 7,000 ft since the 7:00 am observation. Multiple locations were found. It is often present across the high plains of the U.S. during the springtime and is especially common in the south plains of West Texas. The measured path of the tornado in downtown Lubbock was 1.1‐mile wide, but just south of the airport pieces of tin, lumber and clothing, parts … Sirens were sounded in Petersburg at an unknown time. The thunderstorms that were developing at 7 pm were now mature, feeding off of abundant low-level moisture supplied by strong southeast winds. Photograph taken by NASA that shows the pattern of three suction swaths along Kent Street. LUBBOCK, Texas — May 11th, 1970 is a day that will haunt many people in Lubbock and across the South Plains. Tornadoes appeared daily from Minnesota in the north to Texas in the south. Accurate tornado statistics can be difficult to find. On the night of May 11th, 1970, a severe storm turned lethally destructive as two tornadoes ripped through downtown Lubbock, Texas, causing devastation on a level never seen in the city before or since. The tornado also helped in the selection of Lubbock as one of the very first NWS offices to receive a WSR-74C radar. Sirens were sounded at 9:35 pm (this was the time that a patrolman reported a funnel in this part of the city). Introduction. 3.25 inches of precipitation was reported at the airport from all the rain and hail received. The first tornado to strike the city touched down seven miles south of Lubbock Municipal Airport, near the intersection of Quirt Avenue and Broadway. According to records, the largest tornado in the Lubbock area was an F5 in 1970 that caused 500 injuries and 26 deaths. Lubbock, TX2579 S. Loop 289Suite 100Lubbock, TX 79423-1400806-745-4260Comments? It was one of the worst tornadoes in Texas history, and occurred exactly 17 years to the day after the deadly Waco Tornado. At 8:10 pm, an off-duty Lubbock police officer spotted a funnel cloud on the east side of the city, and grapefruit-size hail was reported. NWS Lubbock, TX Local Weather Events: The 1973 Plainview Tornado. Since it was in a relatively sparsely populated area of the city, this first tornado caused little significant damage; however, reports of damaging hail continued to come in from around the city. In addition to tornadoes, the South Plains area is affected by damaging weather each year. In the 1970s, the only ways to collect information from the atmosphere above the surface was to use weather balloons. “I was told to take cover, so I huddled under the boss's desk because it was centrally located and was the biggest and heaviest piece of furniture I could find,” Debbie said. 8:05 pm: Public reported golf ball-size hail 3 miles south of Lubbock city limits. Good moisture along with just enough lift from an upper level storm system glancing the region to the north was sufficient to generate a few thunderstorms Friday evening (22 March). Storm damage is still visible on the Metro Tower (formerly the Great Plains Life Building). The tornado then moved northeastward through the central business district of Lubbock, causing extensive damage. Additionally, the change of the wind direction from southeast at the surface to southwestly aloft, among other factors, provided sufficient spin in the atmosphere to make the stronger storms rotate, and produce tornadoes. The first storm starts off as a small radar echo south and southwest of Lubbock. 8:15 pm: Tornado Warning Bulletin issued until 9:00 pm for Lubbock, western Crosby, eastern Hale, and Floyd counties transmitted on the Weather Wire. We now refer to a suction spot as a “sub-vortex”. Damage was especially severe in the industrial areas of north Lubbock. The surface map indicates the approximate locations that the isolated thunderstorms had developed. The tornado caused extensive damage to the northeast side of Lubbock and resulted in approximately 250 million dollars worth of damage (in 1970 dollars), equivalent to about 1.25 billion dollars in 2005. The Lubbock Tornado was an F5 tornado that occurred in Lubbock, Texas on May 11, 1970. 7:52 pm: The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported to the Lubbock WBO on marble-size hail in the 1300 block of 58th Street (southeast Lubbock). This is a list of tornadoes which have been officially or unofficially labeled as F5, EF5, or an equivalent rating, the highest possible ratings on the various tornado intensity scales. The second tornado would later be rated a F-5. your own Pins on Pinterest Examining each sounding, significant amounts of pink area are present, indicating that the atmosphere on the evening of May 11, 1970, has plenty of instability to work with. 9:30 pm: Lubbock WBO advised the Shallowater Fire Department by telephone of severe storm 5 miles south of their area. May 11, 1970, is a day fewer and fewer people remember but a night the city of Lubbock will never forget. 7:59 pm: Radio Station KFYO used EANS to alert other radio and television stations that a special warning message is coming over the network. 9:08 pm: Public reported to Lubbock WBO baseball-size hail at Holiday Inn East and Mackenzie State Park about 4 miles south of the airport. The newspaper building was in the storm's path and was badly damaged a portion of it … US Dept of Commerce The strongest and deadliest tornado was a powerful F5 tornado that struck Waco, Texas on May 11, causing 114 of the 144 deaths in the outbreak. The warning noted the funnel cloud report along with a hook echo developing in that same location on the Lubbock WBO Weather Service Radar (WSR)-1 radar, apparently moving northeastward. It was supposed to be dedicated this year for the 50th anniversary of the tornado. Additionally, the 7 pm observation at the airport indicated that cumulonimbus clouds, which are dense, vertically developed clouds that produce thunderstorms, were visible to the south and distant northeast of the airport. Over 10,000 vehicles were damaged or destroyed, and at Lubbock Municipal Airport, 100 private aircraft and 19 military planes were destroyed. El Nino/Southern Oscillation Conditions continued to deteriorate through the early evening, and at 7:30 the local weather bureau issued a forecast which included the developing thunderstorm activity. The F-scale is the de facto standard used to rank tornadoes by the amount of damage that they inflict. Twitter, Local Climate Location of the deaths relative to the path of the Lubbock tornado. The right image is the 500 mb map, with winds over 30 knots shaded in blue. All NOAA. Winds in the atmosphere are created by pressure differences, which in turn are caused by temperature differences. Some of the homes were completely swept away. That’s more than $1 billion in modern money. (Image courtesy of Weatherwise magazine). For this campaign, we produced a 20-minute long educational video that you can view HERE. msn back to msn home weather. In the days and weeks that followed the fateful storm, relief poured in from different cities, agencies, and companies. TORNADO NUMBER TEN - THE JARRELL TORNADO - MAY 27, 1997 . The second, most destructive tornado, was 1 1/2 miles wide early on, before narrowing to about 1/4 mile wide by the time it reached the airport. This was evident with the Lubbock tornado, where swaths of extreme damage were located immediately adjacent to locations of very light damage, all within the tornado path itself (see the above aerial photograph). At 10 am on 11 May 1970, the SELS (Severe Local Storms unit) issued an outlook that stated that isolated thunderstorms were possible in the High Plains region of West Texas, and amended the outlook at 1:25 pm to include the possibility that some of the storms may become severe. Much of the plaster in the stairwell walls between the 4th and 16th floors had cracked, and 60% of the building's windows were shattered. This extended period of confluence near Lubbock aided in the development of clouds and eventually thunderstorms as the warm and increasingly moist air that was coming together at the surface was forced to rise. It is also the most recent F5 tornado to have hit a central business district of a large or mid-sized city. See a list of all of the Official Weather Advisories, Warnings, and Severe Weather Alerts for Lubbock, TX. A-J Media Fifty years after the F-5 tornado that left 26 dead as it tore through much of Lubbock, the community will gather to remember - even if it's not as planned. The Lubbock Tornado Facts & Fatalities History about the Lubbock Tornado On May 11th, 1970, a devastating tornado struck Lubbock. Lubbock Tornado from wikipedia 6:55 pm: The Lubbock radar detected a moderate thunderstorm 15 miles south of the Lubbock Airport or about 5 miles south of the Lubbock city limits near the community of Woodrow. Visible on the weather balloon data from May 11, 1970 WBO take. 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