Description

In the afternoon of May 27, 1997, a large, slow-moving and exceptionally intense 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 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.