In-Home Drug Testing Jarrell, TX

Local Area Info: 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak

The 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak in Central Texas that occurred on May 27, 1997. The storm produced 20 total tornadoes, including multiple in the vicinity of Austin, Texas. The outbreak was particularly noteworthy for spawning the Jarrell tornado–one of the fiercest and most destructive F5 tornadoes ever recorded, which caused 27 deaths.

At its peak, the Jarrell tornado was 3/4 of a mile wide and tracked across the ground for 7.6 miles (12.2 km), inflicting beyond catastrophic damage in parts of Jarrell, Texas while killing 27 people. All 27 deaths caused by the tornado occurred within one subdivision of Jarrell - a neighborhood of 38 well-built houses called Double Creek Estates. Each residence was completely dismantled, swept away, and reduced to a concrete slab, while trees in the area were completely shredded and debarked, and grassy fields were scoured to a depth of 18 inches. Many tornado researchers, after reviewing aerial damage photographs of Double Creek Estates, considered the Jarrell storm to be the most violent tornado they had ever seen in terms of damage intensity.

In the early morning hours of May 27, a large mesoscale convective complex developed over eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. A "gravity wave" or outflow boundary was generated by this system and stalled out over Central Texas. This was oriented from the northeast to the southwest, causing the supercells and subsequent tornadoes to move from the northeast toward the southwest, which is exceptionally unusual. Also unusual on this day was the low wind shear and extreme atmospheric instability.