A Tornado Watch was in effect when supercell thunderstorms started developing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area Tuesday afternoon. The ingredients were there. All it took was the heat of the day, moisture, and lift from a boundary nearby to fuel the destructive storms.
It happened a little after 1 pm, when most people were at work. Tornado warnings were issued for that area, sirens were sounded and people suddenly found themselves hiding in hallways. Here’s a look at the radar image along with the ongoing warnings taken at 1:37 pm.
You can see Dallas and Fort Worth both had tornado-warned storms. Meanwhile, multiple other severe t’storm warnings were also taking place.
Supercells, which produced the tornadoes, broke out ahead of the main line of storms, which fired along a pacific cold front.
There were 18 “unfiltered” tornado reports and 17 “filtered” reports. “Filtered” means the National Weather Service has taken out duplicate reports.
Damage was caused in many cities around the Metroplex, shown here:
The areas hit the hardest were Lancaster (south of Dallas), Forney (southeast of Mesquite), Arlington, and Dallas. We know this morning, that hundreds of homes were damaged; there were numerous power outages, and scattered debris everywhere. Planes at DFW airport were ruined by large hail from severe storms.
Two tornadoes were confirmed but that number could increase later today. The National Weather Service went out at 8 am this morning to survey the damage.
The severe weather risk shifts east into LA, MS north to KY and parts of IL, IN today.
By: Danielle Dozier
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