The only F5 tornado ever to touch down in the northernmost part of the Lone Star State tore through the Texas Panhandle on April 9, 1947 leaving death and destruction in its 100-mile-long wake.
Sixty-eight years ago, “tornado” was not a word weather predictors used in their forecasts. The thinking behind this unwritten rule was that it would do more harm than good to issue ominous warnings of a possible twister. All the uninformed public could do was to keep an eye on the threatening skies just as their ancestors had done.
The first member of what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) later deduced to be a “family” of five or six tornadoes came to earth in Carson County southwest of White Deer at about 5:40 p.m. It stayed on the ground for a dozen miles before breaking up east of Skellytown, west of Pampa. During its short stay, the funnel derailed 24 cars of a 61-car freight train hurting two railroad workers and collapsing a farm house on the lone occupant, who also lived through the frightening experience.
