1997 Central Texas Tornado Outbreak - Meteorological Synopsis

Meteorological Synopsis

In the early morning hours of May 27, a large Mesoscale Convective Complex developed over Eastern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. A "gravity wave" or outflow boundary was generated by this system and stalled out over Central Texas. This was oriented from the northeast to the southwest, causing the movement of the supercells later on to be to the southwest, along with most of the tornadoes, which is extremely unusual. Also unusual on this day was the low shear and extreme instability.