I just called over to Steve Fano at the NWS to see if the storms in Oklahoma/West Texas would make it this far south.
"It's dissipating very quickly," Fano reports.
There's always a slight chance that something small could reach us, but, If anything, the rain should be to the south of the Metroplex today.
- Bryon Okada
It's been raining lightly this morning, with lightning throughout the area. There were pretty -- and disruptive -- lightning strikes throughout the Bedford/Euless/DFW area this morning. And the rumbling hasn't stopped downtown, where the building was shaking just a couple of seconds ago. Looks like the storm may linger for the next hour, clearing out midday. And it looks like another round tonight. "There's already some development in Kansas and eastern Colorado," says Steve Fano. So look for the storm to roll in late this evening -- 10 or 11 p.m. -- or in the early overnight hours.
- Bryon Okada
After two triple-digit days, there's a 70 percent chance of thunderstorms in the area today. A storm is crossing the Red River this morning and there is some expectation that it may pack pea-sized hail and 50 mph winds.
The morning storm may miss us to the east, but there's a chance of storms all through the afternoon.
Best guess is that the storms will reach the Metroplex from noon until 2 p.m. or thereabouts, the NWS folks said. Biggest threat is gusty wind up to 40-50 mph.
- Bryon Okada
There is a slight risk of severe storms over all of North Texas this afternoon and evening. Large hail, damaging winds and locally heavy rainfall will be possible. Looks like the worst of it will occur after 1 p.m.
"The upper level ridge that was over us has been pushed into the southeast -- toward South Carolina and Florida," said meteorologist Jessica Schultz. There's a developing trough over the western half of the country. With that transition, you get "embedded disturbances."
One of those, a large area of rain and storms in Oklahoma, will move to the south later today. When exactly is a little tough to decipher -- the storm isn't really moving much at the moment, Schultz said.
And there are no warnings associated with the storm right now.
However, with afternoon heating, the atmosphere will be destablized further so look for some thunderstorm activity.
While this is an isolated upper level distrubance, there have been others around the country.
A lot of them are associated with a cold front that started the rain in Oklahoma --- that's how it's all loosely related.
Here's an AP story describing how other disturbances have materialized...
Midwest copes with floods, East warned of heat
By JIM IRWIN
Associated Press Writer
DETROIT (AP) — Temperatures rose toward the triple digits on parts of the East Coast Monday as Midwesterners braced for more rain that could add to days of deadly floods.
Eight people died from flooding in Michigan and Indiana. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle sought emergency aid for 29 counties and President Bush late Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state’s 99 counties need federal help.
Flooding was expected to be a continuing problem this week as rivers are swollen with the runoff from as much as 11 inches of rain that fell Saturday in Indiana.
“This thing came on fast with such a radical deluge of water that people were describing going from a feeling of security to waist-deep water in a matter or 15 or 20 minutes,” said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
A new storm system was headed toward the Ohio Valley from the southern Plains on Monday and the National Weather Service said as much as 3 inches of rain could fall in parts of the region late Monday.
While the Midwest fought to cope with flooding, the East baked. Heat advisories were posted Monday from the Carolinas to Connecticut, with temperatures expected to hit 100 from Georgia to New York, the National Weather Service said. In the Ohio Valley, a high of 93 was forecast in Cincinnati.
“It’s just crazy. ... It’s really, really hot,” said New York City street worker Jessica Pena as she swept a midtown Manhattan street at around 8:15 a.m. The temperature already was in the upper 80s.
About 17,000 customers in and around New York City were blacked out by thunderstorms that struck late Sunday and the rising demand for electricity to run air conditions, utilities said Monday. A subway system power outage disrupted some morning rush hour service. The city’s Office of Emergency Management said it would open cooling centers.
Intense thunderstorms battered Michigan on Sunday with winds of up to 80 mph and more than 5 inches of rain, knocking out electrical service to more than 515,000 homes and businesses.
Flood warnings were posted Monday for much of western Lower Michigan, the weather service said.
The Midwest storms triggered horrible memories for residents of western Wisconsin still recovering from flash flooding last August that carried entire houses onto highways, washed out roads and forced many to flee in the middle of the night.
Soldiers in Wisconsin were deployed Sunday evening to help evacuate 24 people in Ontario in rural Vernon County. Evacuations also occurred elsewhere across a 150-mile swath of the state from Milwaukee to the Mississippi River.
Officials warned that Wisconsin’s Kickapoo River could crest 6 feet over flood stage sometime Monday.
Small towns in the flooded area of Wisconsin have become isolated islands. Roads leading into La Farge were all but blocked, Viola was unreachable and low-lying areas of Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills were underwater — again, officials said.
“It ain’t normal,” said Monte Sheldon, 47. The weekend rain washed out part of his yard outside Viroqua, Wis., depositing his trees across a highway. He and his wife also had to flee flooding in August.
In southeastern Minnesota, officials urged residents of the Winnebago Valley to evacuate. More than 60 people were taken to a shelter in Caledonia from a campground.
Downstream, the Winnebago River rose to a record 18.7 feet late Sunday at Mason City, Ohio. The surge burst a levee, shutting down the city’s water treatment plant, and Mason City’s nearly 30,000 residents were told not to drink the water or flush toilets. Mason City got more than 5 inches of rain Sunday, a record for the date.
Indiana officials urged about 1,500 people to leave the towns of Elnora and Plainville, about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis, because of flooding along the White River. In Morgan County, southwest of Indianapolis, about 150 residents were taken out of a flooded nursing home, and officials moved more than 250 patients and employees from Columbus Regional Hospital in southern Indiana.
The weekend death toll included six in Michigan, two of them newspaper deliverers for The Grand Rapids Press who drowned Sunday when a road collapsed beneath their car and plunged them into a flooded ravine. Indiana listed one dead and one man missing, and lightning killed one person in Connecticut.
———
Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Gays Mills, Wis., Tom Murphy in Indianapolis, and Ula Ilnytzky in New York City contributed to this report.
- Bryon Okada
Storms are slowly drifting southward from Oklahoma into North Texas. Already, there are flash flood warnings in Cooke County. The National Weather Service is saying some areas could see heavy rain.
Although the Goddess of Liberty remained standing atop the Texas
Capitol, more than a half dozen ancient oaks on the Capitol grounds
were not so fortunate.
High winds smashed through Downtown Austin overnight, splitting trees and causing property damage -- including some damage to the regal Capitol building itself.
Julie Fields, a spokeswoman for the State Preservation Board that oversees the Capitol grounds, said windows were blown out of the top of the dome, showering glass down on the Capitol rotunda floor, several stories below. She said there were no injuries, and that the broken glass had been picked up by about 7 a.m..
Likewise, a contractor clearing up smashed trees estimated about 8 or 9 old oaks had been destroyed. Some, he said, were over 100 years old. He also said several fruit trees were uprooted.
"We have four crews and 14 people out here," said the contractor, Brent Frazier of Certified Arbor Care. "The Capitol had the most (tree) damage (among his clients)-- this is by far the worst damage we've been called out on."
Workmen in hardhats, gimme caps and cowboy hats spent much of the morning chainsawing the remains of the proud old trees and feeding them into a humming wood chipper. Much of the work was down as clouds continued to gather behind the Goddess of Liberty, the statue atop the Capitol (seen above in a picture from the Austin-American Statesman).
According to reports, wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour from the overnight storms left 19,000 Austin residents without power.
-- R.A. Dyer
The whole area is still under a tornado watch through 9 p.m. though.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK put the area under a tornado watch. This includes a long list of counties: BELL, BOSQUE, BROWN, CALLAHAN, CLAY, COLEMAN, COLLIN, COMANCHE, COOKE, CORYELL, DALLAS, DELTA, DENTON, EASTLAND, ELLIS, ERATH, FALLS, FANNIN, GRAYSON, HAMILTON, HILL, HOOD, HOPKINS, HUNT, JACK, JOHNSON, KAUFMAN, LAMAR, LAMPASAS, LIMESTONE, MCCULLOCH, MCLENNAN, MILLS, MONTAGUE, NAVARRO, PALO PINTO, PARKER, RAINS, ROCKWALL, SAN SABA, SOMERVELL, STEPHENS, TARRANT, WISE and YOUNG. The watch lasts until 9 p.m.
