North Texas has endured the newest wave of severe storms.
The National Weather Service in Fort Worth predicted that a line of severe storms would move through the region on March 2, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. These storms were expected to produce damaging winds, hail, and tornados across the area.
Scattered storms began to appear during the afternoon hours; however, widespread storms struck the region in the evening. The NWS issued several severe thunderstorms, warning of damaging winds of up to 80 miles per hour and hail.
The agency also issued tornado warnings in southern and western counties due to radar indications, however, no sightings were confirmed.
Daniel Huckaby with the NWS in Fort Worth told The Dallas Express that Dallas-Love Field endured “significant” winds of up to 76 miles per hour.
“Normally when you get winds up to 60 miles per hour or more, you can start to have damage to some structures; outbuildings, sheds, roof damage, trees blowing down,” said Huckaby in a phone interview.
Huckaby said that the most significant damages due to high-speed winds were observed in a marina near Lake Lewisville, roof damage to a grocery store in Little Elm, and even semi trucks and 18-wheelers overturned on interstate highways.
One of these overturned vehicles had blocked the westbound lanes of I-20 for a time.
Hail was confirmed to have rained down in this storm, but no significant damage was done.
This storm also disrupted power for thousands of Texans. Tarrant County had 25,000 outages in the morning hours of March 3 while Dallas County had about 22,000, according to Fox 4 News.
“All in all, for the amount of wind we had, we really didn’t get that much damage. I think we fared pretty well considering how strong the winds were and how long they lasted,” said Huckaby.
The NWS told The Dallas Express that only one confirmed tornado had touched down, 84 miles east of the metroplex in Hopkins County. Storm chasers captured video footage of the tornado as it moved through the area, damaging trees, structures, powerlines, and homes.
No deaths had been confirmed from this tornado as of press time. The NWS said that it intends to send a team to the site to assess damages and categorize the tornado.
The NWS anticipates pleasant weather in the wake of these storms, with a warming trend projected to continue through the weekend. Temperatures will remain in the 60s on Friday and rise into the 70s on Saturday and Sunday.
Chances of rain and scattered thunderstorms return in the middle of next week, followed by cooler temperatures.