First Texas Tornado Sirens of 2008

Yesterday, sometime around 3 in the afternoon, the Tornado Warning Sirens went off for the first time this year. There is always a little feeling of excitement when the sirens go off. WeatherBug had been going off with various warnings, like Severe Thunderstorms, Golf Ball size Hail in North Tarrant County (I live in Tarrant County, that's where Fort Worth is). And a Tornado Watch that lasted til 2am this morning.

When the Tornado Sirens go off and if you've not lost power you can usually find out from the TV where the Tornado is located. I've had 2 close calls since I've been at my current location. Both occurred in the late afternoon. With the first one it'd been stormy and windy for hours and then suddenly it got dark and the wind picked up. The sirens went off. Turned on the TV to see that a Tornado had touched down in Handley. That is about a mile south of my abode. The tornado was heading my direction. I was preparing to make a run for it when the Tornado turned east via the I-30 freeway and headed towards Dallas. I did not see the Tornado. All I saw was a big black cloud.

My second close call occurred about a year ago. I was at Oakland Lake Park, listening to the radio on my headphones. The Emergency Broadcast System broke in over and over again. When it was reported the line of storms had hit west Fort Worth I knew it was maybe time to head home. And then I started seeing lightning strikes east of downtown Fort Worth. I then realized the storm was moving faster than the reports. I hurried to my van and headed back here. I remember calling Lulu so she could hear the dramatic Emergency Broadcast warning messages. She answered her phone just in time to hear the warning say Tornadoes had been spotted.

By the time I got to my abode the Tornado Sirens were very loud. A forming Tornado passed right over where I live. I did not see this, but others did. All I knew was it was really loud. That particular Tornado touched down just north of my location and tossed around a lot of storage containers. It was a very minor Tornado.

Yesterday's storm quickly passed. The photo above was taken after the storm had passed my location. In the photo we are looking east towards Dallas. When I took this photo the radio was saying there were several rotating cells (tornadoes in the making) above Dallas, along with Hail and a Severe Thunderstorm. The most odd thing about yesterday's Thunderstorm was it created almost non-stop Thunder. But I only saw one Lightning Strike.