On the morning of June 26, 1957, Navy reconnaissance found an intensifying Hurricane Audrey in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane warnings were ordered.

NEW ORLEANS WEATHER BUREAU
HURRICANE WARNING AND ADVISORY NUMBER 5 AUDREY
10 AM CST JUNE 26 1957

HOIST HURRICANE WARNINGS 10 AM CDT ALONG ENTIRE LOUISIANA COAST NORTHWEST STORM WARNINGS ON UPPER TEXAS COAST AS FAR SOUTH AS GALVESTON TEXAS AND SOUTHEAST STORM WARNINGS EAST OF LOUISIANA TO PANSACOLA FLORIDA. MAINTAIN HURRICANE WATCH IN AREA OF STORM DISPLAY.

HURRICANE AUDREY CONTINUES TO MOVE SLOWLY NORTHWARD AND AT 10 AM CST...1600Z...WAS CENTERED ABOUT 400 MILES SOUTHWEST OF NEW ORLEANS NEAR LATITUDE 25.1 LONGITUDE 93.3. HIGHEST WINDS ARE ESTIMATED 100 MILES PER HOUR NEAR CENTER AND GALES EZTEND OUT 150 TO 200 MILES.

INDICATIONS ARE FOR NORTH OR A LITTLE EASY OF NORTH MOVEMENT AT 7 TO 10 MPH WITH THE CENTER REACHING THE LOUISIANA COAST LATE THURSDAU. HOWEVER DUE TO THE SIZE OF THE HURRICANE GALES WILL START ALONG THE LOUISIANA COAST TONIGHT.

TIDES ARE RISING AND WILL REACH 5 TO 8 FEET ALONG THE LOUISIANA COAST AND OVER THE MISSISSIPPI SOUNF BY LATE THURSDAY. ALL PERSONS IN LOW EXPOSED PLACES SHOULD MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.

HURRICANE WARNINGS ARE DISPLAYED ALONG THE ENTIRE LOUISIANA COAST AND STORM WARNINGS ELSEWHERE FROM GALVESTON TEXAS TO PENSACOLA FLORIDA. SMALL CRAFT FROM BROWNSVILLE TEXAS TO PANAMA CITY FLORIDA SHOULD REMAIN IN PORT.

NEXT ADVISORY AT 4 PM CST.

Showers and storms continue moving southward across parts of the area tonight...

A line of showers and storms extends from near The Colony to near Sipsey, Parish and Cordova. It has grown in intensity during the past hour. It will continue moving south mainly west of I-65 across northern and western Jefferson County and into extreme eastern Tuscaloosa County.

Additional showers and storms are over northern Tuscaloosa County just north and northwest of the city of Tuscaloosa.

The showers and storms will continue moving south and should eventually weaken with time.

A large area of East Alabama continues to enjoy beneficial rains along with a couple of embedded thunderstorms this evening and an addiitonal cluster of storms is moving south through North Alabama.

A fairly good thunderstorm is pushing south toward I-20 just to the west of Anniston.

A cluster of showers and storms is over southern Morgan, northwestern Cullman and eastern Winston Counties. This cluster is moving south and will pass just west of Cullman. A typical pulse storm, it probably will rain itself out shortly.

Other storms are from Prattville to Fort Deposit along I-65.

The showers and storms will continue going downhill through the evening hours. There is still a chance of a shower or storm developing during the overnight hours.

Storms should be isolated on Monday west of I-65. They will be a little more likely over eastern sections where moisture will be better. In addition, a surface low will be tracking northward to our east, enhancing chances of rain over eastern sections.

Areas east of I-59 are seeing all the shower and thunderstorm activity late on this Sunday afternoon...

Thunderstorms cover much of DeKalb county at this hour, with travelers along a long stretch of I-59 south of Fort Payne about to be in heavy rain.

Much of St. Clair County is enjoying rain and storms with the main activity extending from just south of Steele to east of Ashville to west of Ragland to east of Branchville and Moody.

Some moderate to heavy rain and a little thunder over Shelby County between Alabaster, Columbiana and Chelsea.

Chilton County has some of the heaviest activity with a fairly good storm in the middle of a cluster of storms over eastern Bibb and western Chilton County west of Jemison.

Some of the other best storms are over Tallapoosa, Chambers and northwest Lee County around Dadeville.

A nice thunderclap here in Trussville just now from a growing storm along I-459 between Irondale and Liberty Park. Have to head outside and check it out...

Do as I say and not as I do...stay inside when a storm is in your vicintity. Lightning is the biggest summertime weather killer. Any of these storms today will be packing a considerable amount of it. Treat them with respect.

On the afternoon of June 25, 1957, the Weather Bureau in New Orleans was tracking newly developed Hurricane Audrey in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Without satellite photos, the forecasters were limited to ship reports, surface observations and aircraft reconnaissance. That morning, they had been surprised to find that the system was already a hurricane with a central pressure of 989 mb and top winds of 85 knots. They reported that the storm was not yet very organized. Forecasters discounted the fact that it might intensify rapidly. After all, it was June and Gulf hurricanes are not supposed to be very bad in the first month of the hurricane season.

An afternoon reconnaissance flight revealed that the hurricane was steadily intensifying and had a central pressure of 979 mb along. They found top winds of 75 mph.

Hurricane watches were in effect along the Louisiana coast. It is interesting to me to look at the text of the actual advisories from the "old days." They were simple and to the point. A failure to communicate would be found to be the main reason that 390 people would die in Audrey.

Here is the 4 p.m. CST advisory from June 25, 1957...

NEW ORLEANS WEATHER BUREAU
HURRICANE ADVISORY NUMBER 2 AUDREY
4 PM CST JUNE 25 1957

CONTINUE THE HURRICANE WATCH ALONG THE TEXAS AND LOUISIANA COASTS.

HURRICANE AUDREY WAS CENTERED NEAR LATITUDE 23.0 AND LONGITUDE 93.5 OR ABOUT 350 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS AT 4 PM CST...2200Z...IT CONITNUES TO MOVE VERY SLOWLY.

HIGHEST WINDS ARE ESTIMATED ABOUT 100 MPH NEAR THE CENTER AND GALES EXTEND OUTWARD 150 MILES TO NORTH AND EAST AND 50 MILES TO SOUTHWEST OF THE CENTER.

HURRICANE AUDREY IS EXPECTED TO DRIFT NORTHWARD AT ABOUT 5 MPH TONIGHT AND INCREASE IN SIZE.

TIDES ARE EXPECTED TO RISE AND SEAS WILL BECOME ROUGH ALONG THE TEXAS AND LOUISIANA COASTS TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY AND SMALL CRAFT IN THIS AREA SHOULD REMAIN IN PORT. SHIPS IN THE PATH OF THIS HURRICANE SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION.

NEXT ADVISORY AT 10 PM CST.

CONNER WEATHER BUREAU NEW ORLEANS

Thunderstorms continue to bubble southeastward across North and Central Alabama this afternoon...

Storms are over Winston, Walker, Fayette and Cullman Counties. A single storm is over southern Madison County.

The activity is pushing southeastward at about 15 mph.

Parts of the Birmingham area will see showers amd storms before 4 p.m. They are not strong and could weaken before we see them.

Additional showers are over Pickens County.

Showers and thunderstorms were beginning to get going along a line from Madison and Limestone Counties through Lawrence and Morgan Counties, then across eastern Marion, Winston and northwestern Walker Counties and on into Fayette and Lamar Counties. This activity is moving south and southeast.

The heaviest storms were...
...about 20 miles northwest of Cullman in southern Lawrence County, moving into northeastern WInston County...
...if this cell holds together, it may merge with storms between Hamilton and Double Springs...they are moving southeast...

Across the eastern part of the state, showers and storms continued in the counties along the Georgia border from DeKalb and Jackson Counties down to Chambers County near Lafayette. Across the border, Atlanta is getting some very heay storms. Good things the Braves are on the road today.

Areas that do get storms will see brief heavy rains, strong gusty winds and deadly lightning.

Don't become a lightning statistic. Take shelter indoors anytime you see developing thunderstorms close to your location.

Outside of the shower areas, skies are partly cloudy with warm June sunshine. Temperatures were mainlyin the low to mid 80s. Exceptions at noon included Gadsden at 79 and Maxwell AFB in Montgomery at 90. I forecast 86 today for Birmingham and we are already there, so that forecast has to be upped a bit.

On this date back in 1957...

NEW ORLEANS WEATHER BUREAU
HURRICANE ADVISORY NUMBER 1 AUDREY
1200 NOON CDT JUNE 25 1957

A HURRICANE WATCH IS ADVISED FOR THE TEXAS AND LOUISIANA COAST.

NAVY RECONNAISSANCE IN THE SOUTHWEST GULF OF MEXICO THIS MORNING INDICATES THAT THE TROPICAL DEPRESSION HAS INCREASED RAPIDLY AND IS NOW A HURRICANE.

AT 1200 CST...1800Z...HURRICANE AUDREY WAS CENTERED NEAR LATITUDE 22.5 LONGITUDE 93.0 OR ABOUT 380 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS. IT HAS MOVED VERY LITTLE DURING THE LAST 12 HOURS.

HIGH WINDS ARE ESTIMATED ABOUT 75 MPH IN A SMALL AREA NEAR THE CENTER AND GALES EXTEND OUTWARD 100 MILES.

HURRICANE AUDREY IS EXPECTED TO MOVE NORTHWARD ABOUT 5 MPH DURING NEXT 12 TO 18 HOURS AND INCREASE SLOWLY IN SIZE AND INTENSITY.

ALL INTERESTS ALONG THE TEXAS AND LOUISIANA COASTS AND IN GULF OF MEXICO SHOULD WATCH FOR LATER ADVISORIES.

NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED AT 4 PM CST.

CONNER WEATHER BUREAU NEW ORLEANS

Based on Navy Reconnaissance that found a central pressure of 989 millibars and maximum winds of 85 knots, the tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico was upgraded to hurricane status and named Audrey at noon on June 25, 1957.

It was nearly stationary some 380 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The radar presentation from the aircraft was characterized as “poor” indicating that the storm was not very organized and rapid intensification was not indicated.

Audrey would steadily intensify over the next 30 hours and the deepen rapidly during the overnight hours just before landfall on the morning of the 27th on the Southwest Lousiaina Coast. Audrey would kill 390 people, making it the ninth deadliest hurricane in United States history. 192 people were never found,

Fog and low clouds shroud much of the area this morning. Fog was observed at several reporting stations, including most stations in the Tennessee Valley. Visibility was down to 1/4 mile at Muscle Shoals at 6 a.m.

They lie on either side of a long snaky stationary front that has inched itself ever so slowly to the east. It is very hard to pick out on a surface chart, but it probably extends from Anniston to Calera to Demopolis.

Higher up inthe atmosphere, a large trough of low pressure extendes from the Upper Midwest into the Lower Mississipi Valley. This is keeping Alabama in a moist southwesterly flow aloft and enhancing our shower and storm chances.

Across the state, early morning temperatures ranged from 64 at Vinemont and 68 at Fort Payne to 73 in Tuscaloosa and 74 at Brookley Field on Mobile Bay. It was 71F in Birmingham at 6 a.m.

The surface low we have been monitoring for tropical development is over South Florida this morning. It is lighting up radars as far north as southeastern North Carolina with showers and thunderstorms in an onshore easterly flow. Vero Beach FL reported 74F with a thunderstorm at 7 a.m. EDT.

It will be moving north to the Florida Panhandle by tomorrow. This could bring some really beneficial rains to the parched regions of Southeast Alabama and South Georgia.

Here in Alabama, the proximity of the boundary, the trough to the west and ample moisture will lead to a good chance of showers and thunderstorm today. Those could spill over into the overnight tonight. We will continue with rain chances on Monday, but things will dry out on Tuesday. Temperatures today will top out in the middle to upper 80s across the region with some sunshine.

The stationary front extends all the way into New England. Showers and thunderstorms are all along it. A persistent cluster of storms formed just over the Alabama around Rome, Georgia during the pre-dawn hours and continues. Heavy rain and storms were affecting the Delmarva region and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. AMTRAK's Crescent passenger train stops at Culpeper VA where heavy rain is falling this morning along with a temperature of 70F.

National Weather Service offices from Raleigh/Durham NC to Mount Holly NJ have been busy issuing flash flood warnings overnihgt. Flash flood warnings are in effect for several counties along the front, including Prince William County Virginia where you would find the Manassas Civil War Battlefield.

It's a nice morning along the beaches of Alabama and Northwest Florida. A few showers were on radar near Dauphin Island. Sea water temperature at the NOAA National Ocean Service station at Pensacola, a warm 87.8F. The surface low over Florida will move northward to the Florida Panhandle during the next 24 hours, giving a good chance of showers and storms to the coast. Things should clear out by Tuesday.

Other concentrations of rain and storms are over the Great Lakes states and over the Central and Southern Plains. Severe weather will be possible in places like Kansas, Central Missouri, eastern Iowa an northwestern Illinois.

In 1957, there was no National Hurricane Center. A 1935 revamping of the U.S. Hurricane Warning Service resulted in the creation of hurricane forecast centers in Jacksonville, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Boston, Massachusetts. Before then, hurricane forecasting was not treated with the important and urgency that it deserved. In 1947, the Jacksonville office was relocated to Miami. It remained the only full time hurricane warning office, with forecasters dedicated to predicting the big storms twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Responsibility for hurricane prediction for the Gulf of Mexico west of longitude 85W still fell to the New Orleans Weather Bureau office. Early on the morning of June 25, 1957, forecasters at New Orleans were tracking a tropical depression over the Southwest Gulf. They issued the second advisory on the depression early that morning.

BULLETIN 4 AM CST JUNE 25 1957

THE TROPICAL DEPRESSION IN THE SOUTHWEST GULF OF MEXICO HAS REMAINED NEARLY STATIONARY DURING THE NIGHT. IT WAS ABOUT 350 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS AT 4 AM CST. THERE ARE SOME INDICATIONS THAT IT IS BEGINNING TO INTENSIFY AND A SLOW NORTHWARD MOVEMENT IS EXPECTED LATER TODAY. HIGHEST WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AROUND 40 MPH IN SQUALLS NEAR THE CENTER.
SMALL CRAFT ALONG THE LOWER TEXAS COAST SHOULD NOT VENTURE INTO THE OPEN GULF.

THE NEXT RELEASE WILL BE AT 10 AM CST UNLESS DEVELOPMENTS WARRANT AN EARLIER RELEASE.
KRAFT WEATHER BUREAU NEW ORLEANS

Unbeknownst to the forecasters, the depression was intensifying rapidly.