Updated: Tornado watch issued for North Texas, including DFW; tornadoes touch down in western counties5/15/13
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/with-a-severe-thunderstorm-watch-issued-for-north-texas-tonight-a-chance-of-hail.html/Update at 9 p.m.: About 37 flights have been diverted from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, said spokesman David Magana. Delays are expected through the night.
Update at 8:55 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: National Weather Service meteorologist Jesse Moore said he expects some tornadoes to continue to develop for a few more hours. Dallas County could get hit, but might skirt the brunt of the storms, he said.
Update at 8:48 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: About 3,000 Oncor customers are now without power east of Grand Prairie.
Update at 8:46 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: WFAA reports homes have been leveled in Hood County.
Update at 8:39 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: Southwestern Dallas County is now under a tornado warning.
Update at 8:30 p.m. by Tristan Hallman: Arlington is believed to be in the path of a tornado, WFAA reports.
WFAA also reports that Granbury’s Rancho Brazos subdivision has also been evacuated due to storm damage.
Update at 8:06 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: Tornado warning now in effect in Tarrant and Johnson counties.
Tornadoes have touched down in Pecan Plantation (a residential town near Granbury) and northeast of Decatur.
Update at 8 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: NWS reporting baseball-sized hail in Granbury not far from the town’s high school.
Update at 7:43 p.m. by Tristan Hallman: A tornado has been spotted developing in Hood County near Lake Granbury, the National Weather Service reports. Granbury is in the storm’s path.
Update at 7:34 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: And then there were fewer: Hamilton, Mills, Montague, Parker and Wise counties are still under tornado warnings. Out is Palo Pinto.
Update at 7:27 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: Two tornadoes have been confirmed in Parker County, the National Weather Service reports. The larger of the two tornadoes could cross Interstate 20 around mile marker 409.
Update at 7:10 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: Comanche and Jack counties are no longer under tornado warnings.
But Hamilton, Mills, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker and Wise counties still are.
Update at 7 p.m., by Tristan Hallman: Hail larger than golfballs is being reported in Millsap, located in Parker County.
Update at 6:30 p.m. by Tristan Hallman: Watches are quickly becoming warnings in some places. Comanche, Hamilton, Jack, Mills, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker and Wise counties are all under tornado warnings.
There are also reports of hail pelting Mineral Wells.
Update at 6:05 p.m. by Robert Wilonsky: Strong-to-severe storms continue to gather steam and form into a line as they move east, and so the National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Watch for most of North Texas — including Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin Counties and points north, south and west — until 1 a.m.
Update at 5:30 p.m. by Tristan Hallman: The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for northern Montague County, which is northwest of Denton, until 6:15 p.m. tonight.
Original post at 3:45 p.m.: Moments ago the National Storm Prediction Center issued a severe thunderstorm watch for much of North Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth, and points north and west — all the way into Oklahoma, matter of fact. The watch, which expires at midnight, came not long after downtown Dallas got pounded by an out-of-nowhere storm that flooded streets.
Says Dan Shoemaker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, says the storms will begin forming to our north and west, where it’s sunny and hot at the moment — somewhere ’round the mid-80s. As the upper level low tracks east, says Shoemaker, a line of storms will try to form just as it approached Dallas-Fort Worth. Hence, the possibility of scattered storms, some severe.
The storms should hit Dallas-Forth sometime around 9 to 11 p.m.
Says Shoemaker, we’re looking at the possibility of hail with these storms — “golf ball or bigger,” he says. There won’t be much of a wind threat, Shoemaker says, because “it’ll be too cool. But upper-level lows have cold air aloft, and that instability allows hail to grow more quickly.”
But, again, Shoemaker doesn’t expect the storms to be widespread — a 50- to 60-percent coverage area at best.
