Tuesday, April 28, 2015

MOTHER NATURE BATTERS PARTS OF TEXAS. SOFTBALL-SIZED HAIL AND TORNADOS DAMAGE PROPERTIES, TREES DOWNED, TENS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER.






















APRIL 27, 2015

DALLAS, TEXAS

Severe weather swept through northern Texas Sunday night.

The National Weather Service says it’s received numerous reports of tornadoes that struck. There was also massive hail.

One driver near Stephenville, Texas was caught in a hail storm with five to six inch hailstones. It wasn’t long before the softball sized stones completely destroyed the windshield.

The weather service’s Forth Worth office said it had received reports of twisters in rural Johnson and Hill counties but hadn’t yet confirmed them.

Some homes and other buildings were flattened in the aftermath of the storm Sunday while other structures had their roofs torn away or were damaged by falling trees. There were no accounts of injuries.

Hail described as the size of ping pong balls, and larger, showered the area.



This April 26, 2015 photo provided by Ben McMillan shows two large hailstones that fell near Rising Star, Texas, about 150 miles southwest of Dallas. A severe storm system that swept across parts of Texas over the weekend brought numerous reports of tornadoes, damage to buildings, large hail and several inches of rain, the National Weather Service said Monday, April 27, 2015. (Ben McMillan via AP) 
 
National Weather Service forecaster Lamont Bain said Monday that severe weather reached Comanche, Erath, Somervell, Bosque, Hill and Johnson counties. He said Glen Rose received more than 4 inches of rain.

Part of the Waxahachie police headquarters south of Dallas flooded as water several inches deep rushed into the building.

Anita Foster, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said in a statement Monday that her agency is assessing the damage and providing assistance to families.

“Overnight, Red Cross teams provided cots and blankets for the shelter set up in Maypearl, and stood by for shelter needs in Johnson, Hood and Erath counties,” she said. “The event is still unfolding with flash flooding throughout the area.”
More severe weather was forecast for North and East Texas through Monday, with forecasts calling for winds up to 70 mph, hail and the possibility of tornadoes.

Other parts of Texas, meanwhile, were lashed by heavy rains. The weather service on Monday issued a flash-flood watch for parts of the Panhandle. Amarillo had received up to 2 inches of rain as of Monday morning, and moderate to heavy rainfall was forecast through the day.

Strong thunderstorms in the Houston area Monday downed trees and damaged homes and buildings.

The Texas Department of Transportation reported heavy rains have led to standing water on roads in Alto and other parts of East Texas, and in Hardeman County, northwest of Wichita Falls near the Panhandle.

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Severe storms ramped up in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Sunday night and into Monday morning, spawning a large tornado that caused damage and power outages.

As of Monday evening, ten twisters have been confirmed by the National Weather Service. Eight were rated EF0, while one near Lake Brownwood was an EF1, as was one near Kenner, Louisiana, the lowest levels on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

The entire town of Rio Vista, Texas, was without power Monday morning following the severe storm, according to NBC DFW. Some of the damage has yet to be assessed, as crews wanted to wait until sunrise to view the damaged areas, the report added. Schools in Rio Vista, Maypearl and Italy will be delayed by 2 hours Monday morning.

"A surface low developed just west of the Texas panhandle, pulling warm, moist air into much of central and eastern Texas. To the west, very dry air flowed into western Texas," said weather.com meteorologist Chrissy Warrilow. "Along this boundary, called a dry line, severe thunderstorms developed that produced large hail and tornadoes from the Abilene area east into the western and southern regions of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex."

The tornado spotted in the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex caused heavy damage, including toppled semi trucks and a canopy from an abandoned gas station that was blown 50 feet, according to CBS DFW. No injuries have been reported so far, the report added.

More than 30,000 Texans lost power during the storms, according to NBC News.
In total, there were at least 20 tornado reports Sunday night and Monday morning in Texas, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. However, survey crews may later find that not all of these tornado reports were from separate tornadoes, and some of the reports may turn out to be damage from straight-line winds, not a twister.

Horse barn damaged & trailer overturned in Rio Vista. A look from Sky 4: pic.twitter.com/Xn6l1QEbCd
— Good Day (@GoodDayFox4) April 27, 2015

Strong thunderstorm winds also downed trees near Brazos Point, Texas, Sunday night, according to local storm reports.

The Gainesville, Texas, Fire Department reported a structural fire that was caused by a lightning strike, local storm reports said. The blaze was confined to a wall and extinguished.

Flooding was also a major concern as these storms rolled through the Lone Star State. Highway 67 in Cleburne, Texas, was flooded with 3 feet of water early Monday morning, according to local reports.

And because several of the supercells carrying those reported tornadoes were moving at a slow rate of speed, torrential downpours associated with the storms led to serious flooding in many of the same areas threatened by twisters and large hail.

Heavy flooding at Davis Ct and CR 1206 in Rio Vista. Reports of house on this street with 4 ft water. @NBCDFWWeather pic.twitter.com/9eR7hB44v7
— Ellen Bryan (@EllenBryanNBC5) April 27, 2015

Baseball-sized hail was reported near Stephenville, about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth, and motorists were reporting damage to vehicles, according to the Associated Press. Stephenville police say shelters have opened at the city library and other locations.
Source: weather.com