1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak

1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak

Destruction in Wichita Falls, Texas, after the tornado
Type	Tornado outbreak
Duration	April 10–11, 1979
Tornadoes confirmed	59 confirmed
Max rating1	F4 tornado
Duration of tornado outbreak2	2 days
Damage	unknown
Casualties	58 fatalities, approximately 100 injuries
Areas affected	Midwestern and Southern United States
1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale 2Time from first tornado to last tornado

¹Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

The 1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak was a tornado event that occurred on April 10, 1979, near the Red River Valley. It is noted for the F4 tornado that hit Wichita Falls, Texas, and is commonly referred to as "Terrible Tuesday" by many meteorologists. Additional ones were reported across the Southern Plains as well as in the Mississippi River Valley on April 10–11, 1979.

A deepening low pressure system formed in Colorado as a warm front lifted north pulling warm, moist, unstable air. There was strong upper level dynamics all coming together to produce strong tornado-producing supercells. In the early afternoon hours, three supercell thunderstorms formed. They moved northeastward, and as a trio spawned families of tornadoes. These supercells caused the most damaging tornadoes of the outbreak.

The first tornado formed near Crowell, Texas, at around 3:05 p.m. About 35 minutes later, the first killer one of the outbreak ripped through Vernon and killed 11 people. Then the supercell spawned one that killed three people in Lawton, Oklahoma. The second supercell spawned one that moved 64 miles (103 km).

The third supercell was the one that formed the Seymour and Wichita Falls tornadoes as part of a three-member tornado family. The first one formed near Seymour at around 4:53 pm. The storm spawned a second one and moved through the south and east sides of Wichita Falls at around 6:00 pm. The third member of the family formed near Waurika, Oklahoma, at around 8:00 p.m.

The Wichita Falls tornado formed in Archer County and moved northeast and damaged a few rural homes and high voltage towers. It rapidly intensified as it entered the city near Memorial Stadium by McNiel Jr. High on Southwest Parkway, which was located to the west of Wichita Falls at approximately 6:07 p.m. damaging both structures severely. Hail the size of golf balls preceded the touchdown and continued for approximately 15 minutes. It then became calm before the winds began to pick up.