A rare tornado
eventoccurred
in the Texas Panhandle on March 26-27, 1975. Two
thunderstorms developed in the late evening and moved rapidly
northeast at 50 mph. The elapsed time between the birth of the storms
and the tornadic storm phase was very short--perhaps less than 45
minutes. The Texas panhandle in general is very sparsely populated.
Undoubtedly, many storms of similar magnitude have occurred in the
Panhandle in the past, but on this occasion, one storm in particular
happened to move over the small town of Lefors.
The storm that
devastated Lefors developed about 20 miles northeast of Tulia at
0415 UTC (2215 CST or 2315 CDT). The storm moved northeast at 50 mph
across the Texas Panhandle.
