» 50th Aniversary of the Dallas Tornado / 25th for Paris

50th Aniversary of the Dallas Tornado / 25th for Paris

Published on 2 Apr 2007 at 1:28 pm. 1 Comment.
Filed under Olla Podrida.

Dallas Tornado - April 2nd, 1957

April 2nd has long been remembered as a red letter day in North Texas. Today dawned somewhat foggy but rapidly cleared to bright sunshine over Dallas …..quite a difference from 50 years ago today as a slowly moving warm front approached from the south. This day would end in havoc as a deadly tornado rampaged from south to north across the western sections of Dallas. In fact, though cameras had been in existence for over 100 years, not a single case existed where the complete life cycle of a tornado had been photographically documented …. that is, until this day, April 2nd, 1957.

Dallas tornado looking west from atop the Republic Bank building in downtown Dallas. Photo by American Airlines PR man Cliff Pope.

After the event had ended, the Weather Bureau’s records were bursting forth with more than 450 black-and-white photos, 250 color transparencies, and nearly 2000 feet of movie film all shot by some 125 photographers at various angles. Additionally, the tornado occurred in a relatively dense data network where radar, upper air and surface observations existed. The tornado even roped out just a mile west of the Weather Bureau station at Love Field. One does not have to use too much imagination to realize that this tornado was documented in greater detail than any other tornado in history up to this point.

The photo shown below is one of the more famous ones of the Dallas tornado and was the second in a series four photos taken by Bill Burkett, a photographer working for Commercial Photographers Inc. in Dallas. The tornado was intensifying dramatically at this point as it approached the Trinity River. The debris seen is from houses and an apartment building which was just struck:

Tornado as it approaches the Trinity River levee just north of Canada St. west of the downtown business district. Photo by Bill Burkett of Commercial Photographers Inc.

Below is a view of the damage track at the location of where the tornado was when Bill Burkett took his famous photo (shown above). The view is looking west with Canada street angled southeast to northwest in the upper left-hand corner of the image:

Damage track just south of Trinity River levee north of Canada street (looking west).

Some famous papers were written after the Dallas tornado event such as Robert Beebe’s “Life Cycle of the Dallas Tornado” and Walter Hoecker’s “Dimentional and Rotational Characteristics of the Tornadoes and their Cloud System”. Hoecker’s study was an early, if not the earliest, study using crude photogrammetric techniques on a tornado and it’s associated cloud structures. It was simply a milestone… a study well before it’s time.

Below is the surface chart for North Texas at 15:30 CST. The stationary front indicated was actually a slow moving warm front:

Surface map at 15:30 CST

You can also peruse the 500mb chart for 15:00 CST showing a negative tilt short wave ejecting northeast from west Texas:

%00mb map at 15:00 CST April 2nd, 1957

Please keep in mind the 10 lives lost this day. A day Dallas will surely never forget and a day science was advanced a bit in the study of tornadoes. For an excellent web site containing many photos and accounts of the Dallas tornado of 1957 please visit this site:

http://www.1957dallastornado.net/

Additional archived weather data of the event can be found here:

Tornado tracks from April 2nd, 1957 outbreak

Surface Map from 21:30 UTC on April 2nd, 1957

500mb chart from 15:00 UTC April 2nd, 1957

500mb chart from 21:00 UTC April 2nd, 1957

250mb chart from 21:00 UTC April 2nd, 1957

DFW sounding from 21:00 UTC April 2nd, 1957

Paris Tornado - April 2nd, 1982

It was 3:20 in the afternoon when Bohnam police officer Michael Bennett reported a rotating wall cloud south of Ravenna Texas. Just a minute later as word was relayed to the NWS in Ft. Worth, a tornado rapidly developed and began it’s 32 mile long path of destruction. Just north of Bonham the storm took it’s first life, a 74 year old woman. Below is a view of this tornado:

The Bonham tornado midway along it's 32 mile path.

As the Bonham tornado roped out a 4:00pm CST just west of Paris, a new wall cloud developed rapidly over the west side of Paris. This quickly developed a tornado over the northwest side of the city … thankfully, even though the city had no siren system (ironically Paris city council had just turned down a proposed system just weeks before), Paris had sent their police and fire equipment out to sound the alarm in addition to noaa weather radio and local media broadcasts. This resulted in a warning lead time of 20 to 30 minutes which undoubtedly saved many lives.

Tornado forming over northwest side of Paris April 2nd, 1982 Photo by Leon Hooten, Paris News

The tornado moved due east though the north side of the city at 50mph with a width varying from 200 to 300 yards resulting in a final death toll of eleven. Below is a view of the tornado as it churned through the north side:

Paris Texas Killer tornado April 2nd, 1982

The Paris storm was part of an outbreak of at least 17 tornadoes (some violent) over northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas. Here is a surface map at 13:00 CST on April 2nd, 1982. Note the intense dryline approaching the Paris area (Star):

Surface chart at 13:00 CST April 2nd, 1982.

Additional weather data regarding the tornado outbreak of April 2nd, 1982 can be found here:

Tornado tracks from April 2nd, 1982 outbreak

Tornado tracks with coop obs overlayed

Surface map from 18:00 UTC on April 2nd, 1982

Surface map from 20:00 UTC on April 2nd, 1982

Surface map from 22:00 UTC on April 2nd, 1982

500mb chart from 12:00 UTC April 2nd, 1982

500mb chart from 00:00 UTC April 2nd, 1982

1 Comment to ‘50th Aniversary of the Dallas Tornado / 25th for Paris’:

shelia drones on 19 Jul 2007 at 2:44 pm: 1

well I have been trying to get newspapers are anything about this day April 2,1982 my mother was one of the eleven that got killed that day I was only 15 years old at that time .I also tried to get something from Paris news they did’t want to sent me anything do anyone know how I can get something.Please my mother name was Dorothy Dean a call back no.806-549-3716 or 806-368-6505

50th Aniversary of the Dallas Tornado / 25th for Paris

1 Comment to ‘50th Aniversary of the Dallas Tornado / 25th for Paris’:

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