A Potential Texas Tornado Storm Brews While I Slip On A Fort Worth Mudslide

Something wicked this way comes. A big storm is brewing. It is heading in from the northwest. By that I mean northwest relative to my location, not the location from whence I moved over a decade ago.

The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Alert. Wind gusts to 60, with 2 inch hail. The conditions are such that tornadoes can form from rotating supercells.

I love weather talk. The view in the picture is looking northwest at the incoming storm, after I got back here a little after 5.

On the way back here, after a late in the afternoon hiking on the Tandy Hills, I heard the radio alert about the incoming storm. And mention made of the fact that in a couple days it will be a decade since the killer tornado that struck downtown Fort Worth.

That was my first tornado storm. I lived in the town of Haslet at the time, at the north end of Fort Worth. I was heading to meet up with someone at UNT in West Fort Worth. Ahead I saw an eerie wall of greenish gray clouds. I did not realize at the time I was looking at the wall of clouds that produced the tornado.

I got a call from the person I was heading towards meeting, telling me she was stuck in a basement, due to a tornado. I retreated to my domicile, which was soon to be struck by a barrage of the biggest hail I've ever seen. Between the thunder and that hail it was about the noisiest thing I've ever heard.

Oh, about the mudslide. Hiking the Tandy Hills today I parked by the tower at the top of Tandy Mountain. This put me on trails I'd not been on since the recent deluge. I was heading down a trail and took a grassy detour, due to the trail being muddy. Suddenly I slipped and went sliding down the hill for a short distance.

This covered the entire back of me with mud, and my right arm and hand. I was a mess. Which is ironic, because just hours before, my therapist, Dr. L.C., emailed me saying, simply, "You're a mess." She is very psychic that way. Although her timing is often off.

I don't believe there will be any bruises or aches from this latest mishap.

Now it's time to batten down the hatches and prepare for losing power. By hatches I mean shut the windows.