Ticker for April 8, 2007

                
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60th Anniversary of Woodward Tornado

This Monday marks the 60th anniversary of the state's deadliest
severe weather event. The "Woodward Tornado", as it is known
in Oklahoma, was actually a long-track supercell with a tri-state
record. Its tornadoes claimed 170+ lives in Texas and Oklahoma,
and did additional severe damage in extreme southwestern Kansas.

During the evening hours of April 9th, 1947, the large tornadic
supercell barreled through two Texas panhandle towns: it completely
destroyed tiny Glazier, and severely damaged most of Higgins.
Six Oklahomans were subsequently killed in rural Ellis County.
At 8:42, with no warning, the storm plowed into the northwestern
half of the city of Woodward.

The scene in Woodward the next morning was tragic: more than
1,000 buildings lay in ruin across 100 city blocks. Most studies
place the Woodward death toll at 107. More than a thousand were
injured in town. Some of the injured were hypothermia victims
among the homeless left to face the following week's cold front.
Total damages exceeded $7 million, which represents nearly
$70 million in today's dollars.

The 1940s were a decade of horrible tornado tragedies in Oklahoma,
arguably the worst in the state's history. However, most of the
early-decade storms were obscured historically by events surrounding
World War II. In contrast to storms during the war years, the human
suffering of Woodward storm was heavily covered on film and in
print. This, combined with a growing American trust in science and
technology, helped focus attention on the potential to observe
and even forecast tornadic storms.

One year later, in Midwest City, Oklahoma, meteorologists produced
the world's first successful scientific forecast of a tornado.

Notably, a half-century later, a major Oklahoma city was struck
by a giant tornado on par with the Woodward storm. The OKC-area
tornado of May 3rd, 1999 had a considerably longer urban track
with a higher population density. Despite the much, much larger number
of at-risk residents, the fatalities were about half of the Woodward
storm. This is seen by many as a testament to improved forecasts,
warnings & warning systems, emergency management and a well-informed
citizenry.