The Saragosa Tornado of 1987 was an intense, short-lived twister that killed 30 people in far southwestern Texas. Despite the weather office issuing a tornado warning 26 minutes prior, nobody within the town knew that it was coming. Today we learn the meteorology behind the storm, recreate the timeline of warnings issued, and discover why the people of Saragosa were ultimately victims of their own environment.
Sources and Further Reading:
https://controlc.com/135a37de
The 1987 Saragosa F4 Tornado – Why the 26 Minute Warning was never Received.
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Texans: do you pronounce it Peck-os or Pay-cos?
Why is relying on sirens problematic today?
I live in a small town and I can barely hear the siren in town from my location unless it's totally silent indoors, then I maybe think I hear something, I mentioned that on the town's FB page and was informed the sirens are to alert people who are outdoors not inside buildings, LOL!! if I'm outdoors I can SEE what's going on with my EYES, I dont need a silly siren when the sky is dark and wind picks up and torential rains come in, so it's useless!
Paykiss
I'm a car guy and a plane-geek that flies often for business, so what was most horrifying from this tragic situation was the idea of being an a car flung up to 1,000ft.
Your average jetliner reaches 1,000ft usually just beyond the edge of the airport on take off, when, if planned for, that around when your first turn might occur, it's only a few seconds after you started the takeoff roll, but the ground is already quite far below, and you've barely left the airport, now imagine that in a car, knowing it was never meant to be up there, unlike a plane…
Interesting – could a parallel happen in Marfa or is it blocked from the potential of easterly winds? Also I love that you bring sociological/behavioral/governmental aspects into this, and what's needed to reach and warn people. We need to do more to make warnings multilingual and equitable, through channels that reach everyone. As much as I don't want to depend on "siren mentality," it's tragic that the local government didn't take the sirens the previous year.
Our lady of Guadalupe. Boy it's a good thing they had that religious b.s. in place.
April 23, 1968 F5 in South Ohio. That's near my neck of the woods and I wonder how an estranged F5 fared over 31 miles in a mountaineous region. Looks to be the longest treck through this type of terrian, and the 2nd most eastern (E)F5!
I know this is not too long ago but also Oklahoma 2013 they had a huge tornado there
Great video! Glad you got a hold of the book! A lot of these small towns have books like this I have found when doing research.
A topic that may seem foreign to some is that being from the northeast and then living in New England- tornado sirens do not exist. So there is the haves and have nots. Yet, the have nots still are aware in many instances. While probably out of your scope, it’s an interesting POV.
I will never forget the Tornado I live in West Texas the biggest hospital in West Texas is in Odessa I live 30 miles away from Odessa I can remember the news the night it happened a lot of people drove there own injured people to the ER in Odessa it still makes me sad to think about it and to watch this even
The mix of science, history, and humanity are what make your videos worth the watch. Learn so much each time, keep it up!
You should see if the Internet Archive’s Open Library has a digital copy of that book, they have scanned and preserved a lot of books
i have no idea why this was in my recommended, but it was fascinating. good job!
A somewhat fun fact, I was living in Joplin at the time of the 2011 tornado and let me tell you what, I still haven't fully recovered, but to be fair, I was 10 at the time, so it's gonna stick with you. At this point the effects it has on me are limited to increased stress during strong/severe weather and the urge to keep an eye on the weather during these times. It was rather scary, but my entire family that lived in Joplin at the time were fine, in fact, both my uncle and his family, and my grandparents were actually untouched by the tornado, while my house was almost completely obliterated. Another fun fact, the neighborhood I used to live in at that time has since been completely demolished and is now technically part of the High School's Football field.
How about Newton Falls/Niles Ohio EF-5 tornado?
Ha boobs 😏
Hey man, cool video. Thank you for using my siren photos throughout the video. If you wouldn’t mind, just next time give me credit. Thank you.
Texas is a big State with small towns and cities that I've heard about but just too investeded in North East Texas. There is a community college here with several facilities named by these small towns and cities.
where is Peck Us ?
Loved the video! Myself when I’m older I wanna be a storm chaser and I wanna learn more about storms/hurricanes, and Much more. I find you channel interesting and helpful to help me with this!
Growing up in Texas back during this time, stories like this absolutely traumatized me well into my adulthood. But it also sparked a lifelong fascination with weather, tornadoes and science. The amount of detail in your analysis of these decades old events is impressive. Great work!
Yep! 1997 was the year of the tornado, it seemed, Crotched Mountain in Greenfield, New Hampshire got a tornado on July 3, 1997. And tornadoes are rare in New Hampshire and Vermont. And May 22? 3:05 That would be like the Joplin monster tornado in 2011!
I was 20 yo when this happened. And, for YOUR INFORMATION…there was a kindergarten graduation going on that night. That's where MOST of the injuries and deaths happen. You are lacking in your due diligence. The governor at the time was a POS named Bill Clements. He was the first republican governor we had had in over 50 years. He did NOTHING to help the town. Typical republican who let the predominantly Hispanic town to fend for itself. MF.
the 1967 oak lawn, il tornado. check that one out for a video. i can point you towards some good info on it. plus i was there.
Did you do one of the Tri-State Tornado of 1925? If not, I highly recommend it.
6:56 I’m confused. The town thought they were being ignored but they refused sirens? I’m guessing you mean the county was offered sirens or something.
And in that same year, Edmonton, Alberta got a tornado also. No warning at all like Saragosa.
Stumbled across this video randomly, as a weather and true crime enthusiast living in tornado alley, thinking this was just going to be a macabre video briefly covering the tornado tragedy just being like “they had no warnings and town was wiped with causalities”. But this video was a very informative analysis about the event and even accounted for the details that led up to the condition of the situation (the status/resources of the town/state, the recipe of the storms, the level or lack of preparation, the lead time they had, etc) while also having a refreshing narration style, with even data/book recommendations! Hope you keep up these style of videos and continue to spread awareness!
Peckas? Never heard of it. 😂
So essentially, either governmental laziness or racism against a predominantly Hispanic community is the reason.
I know "rain wrapped" is probably a more simplistic way to phrase the bear cage phenomenon, however it's nowhere near as ominous. "Bear Cage" is a terminology which portrays the situation with the danger and urgency it warrants. Therefore bear cage is the superior terminology. I am glad you use it, many seem prefer "rain-wrapped"
Dont wanna feel ignored? Become incorporated and learn the language of the land
Back in 1977 I stumbled across NOAA weather radio when my dad had bought himself an AM FM shortwave radio. And then eventually we got the bearcat alert weather radio.
Man I don't know where to start with this one. I'm from Joplin Missouri and it's one of those things if you weren't there. Then you don't know. We had ample warning time. Our meteorlogist doug Heady is NWS and AWS certified. There was a tornado watch all day. Local government surely failed saragosa. But emergency preparedness has never been on local government or the NWS. That's up to the individual. This was a community for farmers you said so yourself. The original weatherman. The farmers almanac. And while I don't put much merit into the accuracy I will say this: A farmer knows when a storm is coming. The thing that upsets me is everyone talks about joplin and other events like this like rhe victims were just blissfully unaware of tornadoes and warnings and being prepared. Yes saragosa had way less opportunity to know what was happening. But it doesn't change the fact that there were absolutely farmers that knew what was happening and died taking shelter in their own homes. Because that's what happens in most tornado deaths. People die taking shelter in their home.
Jarrell was strong but it's NOT at the very top of the list for the actual most powerful tornados. The reason it caused so much damage is because it sat and churned in one place for 3 minutes, not because it had the highest wind speeds and power
First video I'm seeing of yours, you've got a new subscriber!
I'd love to see you discuss the tri-state tornado (1925), the Plainfield, IL (90), Joplin, MO (2011), and Xenia, OH (74) tornadoes!
Where do you get the intro music? Do you make it yourself? If so, I wish there was more lol.
Idk what genre to even call it to find more, weather music synth?
I was a couple of states further north, but my first tornado-related memory was also from tornado season in 1987. At the time, I was 4 years old and my family was living in Wichita, Kansas. I remember my mom waking my sister (age 2 at that time) and me up in the middle of the night because the tornado sirens were going off. We lived in a second floor apartment, so the safest place available was the bathtub in the bathroom, as it was far away from any outside walls and well protected by interior walls as well. My mom brought a bunch of children's books with her, and read us stories for about an hour until the sirens stopped. It wasn't until years later that I realized the significance of the situation. At the time I was just excited that I could be awake in the middle of the night and have stories read to me (which was one of my favorite activities at that age).
Anyone else clicked on this video and expected a soft voice kind of horror voiceover?
Please do an episode on the 1997 Jarrell, TX F5 and on the April Fools Day New Jersey tornado outbreak of this year please!
It's a very long time ago but I would like to hear your take on the Flint Michigan Beecher Tornado of 1953. My aunt and uncle and cousins survived only because they had left for vacation up north about 2 hours before the tornado struck. Every one of their neighbors was killed.