1922 Austin twin tornadoes
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On the afternoon of May 4, 1922, two simultaneous tornadoes struck
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, taking unusual southwesterly paths that tore through the city and surrounding areas on both sides of the
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. Meteorological details concerning the conditions that led to the event are sparse, though historical accounts described the morning and afternoon as sweltering; clouds percolated northeast of Austin by noon and had developed into thunderstorms over the city by around 4:00 p.m. The first tornado began in a rural area northwest of the
Texas State Capitol The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the American state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 18 ...
and tracked across the Texas Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth and Deep Eddy, injuring at least five people and causing around $25,000 in damage. The tornado was widely photographed and was estimated to have been an F2 tornado on the
Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...
. While the first tornado was inflicting damage, a second tornado touched down near the
Texas State Cemetery The Texas State Cemetery (TSC) is a cemetery located on about just east of downtown Austin, the capital of the U.S. state of Texas. Originally the burial place of Edward Burleson, Texas Revolutionary general and vice-president of the Republic of ...
and tore across the Travis Heights community and St. Edwards University. Its most destructive impacts occurred at the Woodward Manufacturing Company's automobile plant at Penn Field. It then curved west towards Manchaca and Oak Hill, leveling homes and uprooting numerous trees before dissipating. The second tornado was the more destructive of the two and killed at least 12 people, including six at a single home in Oak Hill. It was estimated to have been an F4 tornado on the Fujita scale. In aggregate, the two tornadoes injured 50–60 people and inflicted at least $300,000 in damage, with some estimates placing the damage toll above $700,000.


Synopsis

Two simultaneous tornadoes struck the
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, area on the afternoon of May 4, 1922, inflicting a combined 50–60 injuries and around $300,000–$350,000 in property damage according to one estimate published in the ''University of Texas Bulletin''. Estimates of the damage toll vary widely. One estimate in the
Weather Bureau The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the p ...
's ''Climatological Data'' publication indicated a $500,000 damage toll. ''The Austin American'', a local newspaper, tallied a $584,000 toll,
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/ref> while another newspaper, ''The Austin Statesman'', tallied a $725,000 toll. One tornado generally struck areas west of central Austin while the other struck areas east and south of the city; the latter caused all 12–13 fatalities documented on May 4. The tornadoes were separated by less than . Both tornadoes took atypical tracks towards the south-southwest, though other strong tornadoes in
Central Texas Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas surrounding Austin and roughly bordered by San Saba to Bryan and San Marcos to Hillsboro. Central Texas overlaps with and includes part of the Texas Hill Country and corresponds to a ph ...
have also taken similar tracks such as those in the
1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak A deadly tornado outbreak occurred in Central Texas during the afternoon and evening of May 27, 1997, in conjunction with a southwestward-moving cluster of supercell thunderstorms. These storms produced 20 tornadoes, mainly along the Inter ...
. The Austin/San Antonio office of the National Weather Service ranked the event as the second most significant weather event of the 20th century for the Austin area. Much of what is known about the two tornadoes is derived from two published accounts of the storm, with one authored by Frederic W. Simonds, the chairman of the Department of Geology at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, and Fred Morris, a weather observer and employee at the university's mechanical engineering department. The two tornadoes were also widely photographed, though the second, eastern tornado was imaged less. A brief hailstorm with hail "of larger size than a pigeon egg" according to Simonds occurred after the two tornadoes struck, lasting for about 20 minutes before the storms abated prior to sunset. To the north, the town of
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was buffeted by strong winds from a concurrent but separate storm.
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and
Hutto Hutto is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Greater Austin, Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area. The population was 27,577 at the 2020 census. Geography Hutto is located at (30.544517, −97.545198), about sev ...
reported heavy rain during the afternoon but did not otherwise suffer any ill effects.
Pflugerville Pflugerville ( ) is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States, with a small portion in Williamson County. The population was 65,191 at the 2020 census. Pflugerville is a suburb of Austin and part of the Austin–Round Rock–San Mar ...
reported small hailstones and rain. Simonds described May 4, 1922, as an "oppressively warm" day. J.D. Martin, the superintendent at the Texas Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth, described it as the onset of a heatwave shortly before the first tornado struck. Likewise, Morris described the morning as "sultry" with a "very light southeast breeze" in his report published in the May 1922 edition of the ''
Monthly Weather Review The ''Monthly Weather Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers research related to analysis and prediction of observed and modeled circulations of the atmosphere, including technique ...
''. The
air pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The Standard atmosphere (unit), standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equival ...
on the University of Texas bottomed out at 986 mbar (hPa; 29.13 inHg) at 3:20 p.m. Aside from the university barometer, there were no standard surface weather observations as climatological data was only recorded once per day at 7:00 a.m. Weather maps indicated the juxtaposition of drier air west of Austin and moist air from the
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to the east. Small and nearly stationary
cumulus Cumulus clouds are clouds which have flat bases and are often described as "puffy", "cotton-like" or "fluffy" in appearance. Their name derives from the Latin ''cumulo-'', meaning ''heap'' or ''pile''. Cumulus clouds are low-level clouds, gener ...
clouds began to form by 11:00 a.m. Some of these clouds to the northeast developed into
cumulonimbus Cumulonimbus (from Latin ''cumulus'', "heaped" and ''nimbus'', "rainstorm") is a dense, towering vertical cloud, typically forming from water vapor condensing in the lower troposphere that builds upward carried by powerful Buoyancy, buoyant air ...
clouds by noon and remained stationary until around 2:30 p.m. when they began to move and spread south. After 3:00 p.m., low-level
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clouds began to converge over the Austin area, and at around 3:45 p.m. thunder was heard for the first time. Lightning became more frequent as the thunderstorm intensified.


Tornadoes


First tornado

An account by Paul T. Seashore published in the ''Monthly Weather Review'' described the development of the conical
funnel cloud A funnel cloud is a funnel-shaped cloud of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud (usually a cumulonimbus or towering cumulus cloud) but not reaching the ground or a water su ...
that led to the first tornado on the afternoon of May 4: Simonds notes that a clamor began on the campus of the University of Texas as the funnel cloud began to descend to the northwest. The commotion also led to the mid-game cancelation of a baseball match between the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
and
Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Clark Field Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...
as well as the suspension of a special meeting of the
Austin City Council The Austin City Council is the unicameral legislature of the city of Austin, Texas, United States of America. The mayor is included as a member of the council and presides over all council meetings and ceremonies. The current mayor of Austin is ...
. The funnel cloud was deflected 45 degrees away from the nadir below its connection with the parent cloud; Simonds believed this was a byproduct of wind currents passing through the rugged topography of the
Balcones Escarpment The Balcones Fault or Balcones Fault Zone is an area of largely normal faulting Edwards Aquifer in the U.S. state of Texas that runs roughly from the southwest part of the state near Del Rio to the north-central region near Dallas along Inte ...
west of Austin. This first tornado touched down in a rural area northwest of the
Texas State Capitol The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the American state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 18 ...
and moved south-southwest. It destroyed several homes and caused heavy damage at the Texas Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth, injuring five people. Buildings at the institute were either unroofed or displaced from their foundations; an industrial building, dormitory, laundry building, and smaller sheds were destroyed on the institution grounds. The tornado then blew down or unroofed cabins near Deep Eddy along the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
and denuded or uprooted trees. This included those on the nearby
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and Hardy Johnson campgrounds that were largely destroyed. A segment of roofing ripped away from the institute landed at Deep Eddy after traveling airborne for . Two people were injured at Deep Eddy. The tornado then crossed the river and produced a narrow path of damage in unpopulated hills southwest of Austin before dissipating. An analysis of the tornado's damage published by meteorologist
Thomas P. Grazulis Thomas P. Grazulis (born August 17, 1942) is an American meteorologist who has written extensively about tornadoes and is head of ''The Tornado Project''. Biography Early career Thomas Grazulis grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts and first c ...
in 1990 estimated that it was an F2 tornado on the
Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...
, with a damage toll amounting to around $25,000; ''The Austin Statesman'' attributed at least $50,000 in property damage to the tornado, including $40,000 incurred by the Texas Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth. The tornado's path spanned at its widest and was long.


Second tornado

Onlookers on the University of Texas campus watching the progression of the first tornado were unaware of the formation of a second tornado and the subsequent destruction to the east. Morris's account of the second tornado detailed the development of the
wall cloud A wall cloud (murus or pedestal cloud) is a large, localized, persistent, and often abrupt lowering of cloud that develops beneath the surrounding base of a cumulonimbus cloud and from which tornadoes sometimes form. It is typically beneath the r ...
that preceded the second tornado, writing of its "violent churning" and lowering from the broader cloud. This tornado touched down near the
Texas State Cemetery The Texas State Cemetery (TSC) is a cemetery located on about just east of downtown Austin, the capital of the U.S. state of Texas. Originally the burial place of Edward Burleson, Texas Revolutionary general and vice-president of the Republic of ...
on the east side of Austin while the first tornado was in progress and initially moved south-southwest. Trees nearby were uprooted and stripped of their branches while some buildings sustained serious damage. One small home on Navasota Street was torn from its foundation. The Tenth Ward Fire Station was damaged when a
moonlight tower A moonlight tower or moontower is a lighting structure designed to illuminate areas of a town or city at night. The towers were popular in the late 19th century in cities across the United States and Europe; they were most common in the 1880s and ...
collapsed to it. A
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gas station on East Sixth Street was unroofed. Along the Colorado River, small homes, and outbuildings were damaged as the tornado began to cross the river, pulling a column of water into the air. Waste from a nearby city landfill was also pulled into the river. The tornado then entered the newly-built Travis Heights community, where it unroofed houses and uprooted large trees. Three homes were "wrecked" according to ''The Austin Statesman'' and four others were damaged. The tornado's impacts were not uniform; in some cases, badly damaged buildings were adjacent to those that showed little evidence of the tornado's passage. At the time, the tornado spanned approximately across. Additional homes were razed before the tornado moved across the campus of
St. Edward's University St. Edward's University is a private, Catholic university in Austin, Texas. It was founded and is operated in the Holy Cross tradition. History Founding and early history St. Edward's University was founded by the Reverend Edward Sorin, CSC ...
. The third story of a brick dormitory was destroyed, in addition to the campus power plant and gymnasium. One university student was killed after being thrown by the tornado. Another four students were injured. Grazulis lists the damage at the university as totaling $200,000. Debris from the tornado's passage over the campus was recovered as far as away. The greatest property toll occurred when the tornado tracked over Penn Field, where it destroyed the automobile plant of the Woodward Manufacturing Company; five large brick buildings were demolished and a steel water tower was toppled. Two people were killed there and twenty-eight others were injured. Most of the casualties occurred at the facility's living quarters or
planing mill A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and seasoned boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the planer and matcher, the molding machines, and varieties of saws. In the planing mil ...
; some were outside watching the tornado as it moved across Travis Heights when they were struck by debris. The Woodward Manufacturing Company assessed $300,000 in losses at the plant. Another person at Penn Field outside of the factory was also killed. Debris from the destruction at Penn Field was lofted over into the air and was blown onto the busy
Post Road A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...
connecting Austin with
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, but caused no loss of life. Additional debris broke through the roof of the St. Elmo schoolhouse; the building itself also moved at least off its foundation. One person was killed in the St. Elmo area, which was reportedly "wiped out" by the tornado. The tornado's path then curved towards the west, destroying a dairy and other buildings. Two cows and a horse at the dairy were killed. It was at this point that the tornado was at its widest, with a diameter of some . Two people were killed northwest of Manchaca. Six people were killed in a single home southeast of Oak Hill; little remained of the home aside from the stones that once comprised its chimney. Other small homes nearby were also leveled. Tornadic damage after this point was largely inflicted upon farms and forests to the southwest, with swaths of fallen timber and debris resulting from the tornado's trek into more forested areas. Grazulis's 1991 assessment of the second tornado's damage estimated that it was an F4 tornado on the Fujita scale. Estimates of the tornado's death and damage toll vary. Press reports and documentation published in the ''Monthly Weather Review'' list either 12 or 13 deaths. The May 5, 1922 edition of ''The Austin Statesman'' enumerated 13 fatalities and 44 injuries, with property damage reaching $725,000;
page 1page 3
/ref> the following day's edition enumerated 12 fatalities. The injured were sent to three area hospitals. Hornaday 1975 5145.jpg (15681705700).jpg, Remains of a woodworking plant where two people were killed Hornaday 1975 5147.jpg (15683273797).jpg, Buildings damaged by trees felled by the tornado Hornaday 1975 5148.jpg (15867049691).jpg, A damaged car after being thrown by the tornado Hornaday 1975 5151.jpg (15868407952).jpg, A damaged dormitory at St. Edward's University


Aftermath

The tornadoes cut off telecommunications with South Austin. Local chapters of the
American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
established a distribution center for relief supplies at the Austin Chamber of Commerce, appealing for donations of clothing and bedding from residents of
Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is na ...
. Cash donations were also solicited by the chamber of commerce. Hundreds of visitors took the city from other towns to observe the devastation caused by the tornadoes. Local firemen, police, members of the
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, and a detachment of the Texas Rangers secured the St. Edward's University campus and Penn Field to preserve property and belongings left behind by the storms. The chambers of commerce of
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
and San Antonio also offered to assist the city's recovery.. Work crews were quickly dispatched to clear debris around the city. The reconstruction and repair of damaged homes near Deep Eddy, in East Austin, and in the Travis Heights community began within a few days; in some cases, contracts for rebuilding were awarded before noon on May 5.
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/ref> St. Edward's University began a fundraising campaign to accrue $250,000 for repairs to campus buildings. Students were housed in temporary quarters until the end of the school term in June following the damage to the dormitories.
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The Woodward Manufacturing Company, once a significant contributor to Austin's economy, transitioned into a furniture company after suffering extensive losses.


See also

*
List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks These are some notable tornadoes, tornado outbreaks, and tornado outbreak sequences that have occurred in North America. #''The listing is U.S.-centric, with greater and more consistent information available for U.S. tornadoes. Some North Americ ...
*
1953 Waco tornado outbreak A deadly series of at least 33 tornadoes hit at least 10 different U.S. states on May 9–11, 1953. Tornadoes appeared daily from Minnesota in the north to Texas in the south. The strongest and deadliest tornado was a powerful F5 to ...
*
1970 Lubbock tornado Portions of Lubbock, Texas, were struck by a powerful multiple-vortex tornado after nightfall on May 11, 1970, resulting in 26 fatalities and at least $135 million in damage. It was in its time the costliest tornado in U.S. history, dam ...


Notes


References


External links


GenDisasters: Austin, TX Tornado, May 1922
{{DEFAULTSORT:1922-05-04 Austin twin tornadoes Natural disasters in Austin, Texas Tornadoes in Texas Austin Twin Tornados, 1922 1922 natural disasters in the United States Austin twin tornadoes F4 tornadoes by date Austin, Texas,1922-05-04 Tornadoes of 1922