Remembering 1957's Hurricane Audrey

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.