On the afternoon of May 4, 1922, two simultaneous tornadoes struck Austin, Texas, taking unusual southwesterly paths that tore through the city and surrounding areas on both sides of the Colorado River. Meteorological details concerning the conditions that led to the event are sparse, though historical accounts described the morning and afternoon as sweltering; clouds percolated northeast of Austin by noon and had developed into thunderstorms over the city by around 4:00 p.m. The first tornado began in a rural area 6 mi (9.7 km) northwest of the Texas State Capitol and tracked across the Texas Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth and Deep Eddy, injuring at least five people and causing around $25,000 in damage. The tornado was widely photographed and was estimated to have been