A small stream flood advisory for minor flooding has been issued for north central Tarrant County and western Dallas County, the National Weather Service said.
The advisory is especially intended for areas that routinely have poor drainage during periods of heavy rain -- like today.
At 7:11 a.m., strong thunderstorms were rolling along a line extending from three miles northwest of Irving to five miles west of Crowley. The storms' speeds were clocked at about 25 mph.
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-- Bill Miller
Photo by Lance Murray
Just starting to thunder and lightning in the Crestwood area west of downtown. Here's a photo of the storm moving in from Montgomery Plaza.
Trophy Club was also hit hard by overnight storms.
Lisa Hennek, Trophy Club's public information officer, said city workers were out in force Thursday morning, removing storm debris and large, downed trees that were blocking streets and driveways. She said a town resident was also organizing a group of school kids to help with the clean-up.
Hennek said at least two houses under construction were damaged or destroyed and at least one other had caught fire. She said furniture and umbrellas at the community pool were also damaged.
Henneck said the Town is offering disposal sights for storm debris at Harmony Park, Independence Park and the Church at Trophy Lakes. The town will also be providing curb side collection Thursday and Friday for residents unable to dispose of the debris at centralized sites.
Melody McDonald
Star-Telegram
817-390-7386
mjmcdonald@star-telegram.com
Elizabeth Zavala
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Three days of rain have punched the 18-month-old drought in the mouth, but it's still standing.
Consider this data crunched this morning by Steve Fano, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
The drought, which began late 2007, had left North Texas with a rain deficit of 7.63 inches at the end of 2008.
"Then in January, we were another 1.08 inches in the hole," Fano said.
There was some rain in February, but not enough to erase the drought. By March 10, another 2.81 was added to the shortfall for a total deficit of 11.44 inches.
That started to change, of course, with heavy showers and thunderstorms which began Wednesday, but they are expected to taper off later today.
"We picked up 1.2 inches yesterday," Fano said. "It's very likely we'll be over 4 inches before this whole event is over.
"If it didn't rain in March we would've been 14 inches in the hole."
But even with a possible 4 inches this week, that still leaves a 10-inch deficit, Fano said.
You may wonder if this week's rains signal an end to the drought, but there's no scientific correlation to that, Fano said.
"But keep your fingers crossed," Fano said. "We're at least chipping away at our deficit. This is a start."
-- Bill Miller
What? Snow at Meacham Airport?
Not!
But that's what you read Thursday morning if you were logged onto some Websites maintained by the National Weather Service.
Turns out, however, that even though it was cold and wet, there was no snow -- even though a weather service sensor at the airport said so.
The device is part of the Automated Surface Observing System, or ASOS, which has replaced human weather observers at airports around the nation. (The ASOS shown in the NWS photo, right, is in Salinas, California.)
Aviation officials started installing the systems during the mid 1990s, but they were met with criticism from some air-traffic controllers who complained that they were misreading actual weather conditions, according to archived news reports.
Apparently one glitch lingers.
"Some times it gets confused," said Steve Fano, a weather service meteorologist.. "Any time precipitation is really light and temperatures are below 38 degrees, the sensor doesn't know if it's rain or snow.
"So it calls it snow."
The weather at 9:30 a.m. was 37 degrees with light drizzle over some areas.
Fano reminded that snow can occur when it's 40 degrees, but it has to be really cold aloft, and that wasn't the case on Thursday.
"It's not really snowing," he said.
-- Bill Miller
It's official.
A tornado with 90 mph winds is what clobbered a Colleyville neighborhood Tuesday night (right), the National Weather Service said.
A team from the weather service inspected the damage, including roofs shorn from homes, and determined Wednesday morning that a tornado was the culprit, said Jennifer Dunn, a meteorologist with the agency.
The twister was rated an "EF 1," which is on the lower end of the Enhanced Fujita Scale -- the system that the weather service uses to rate the strength of tornadoes.
But the tornado's severity should not be downplayed based on its EF rating, Dunn said.
"It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a little tornado," she said. "It's still significant, especially to the families whose homes and roofs were damaged by it."
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-- Bill Miller
