A tornado touched down and crossed a highway in Texas, causing damage and possible injuries as scattered severe storms moved across Texas and Oklahoma Saturday evening.
Forecasters issued tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of both states as some heat records were broken during the day in South Texas and residents received triple-digit temperature warnings during the long holiday weekend.
A tornado crossed northern Texas’ Denton County Saturday evening and overturned tractor-trailers, halting traffic on Interstate 35, Denton County Community Relations Director Dawn Cobb said in a statement .
The tornado was confirmed near Valley View, moving east at 40 mph, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a tornado warning for northern Denton County, Cobb said.
The storm damaged homes, overturned RVs and toppled power lines and trees throughout the area, including Sanger, Pilot Point, Ray Roberts Lake and Isle du Bois State Park, Cobb said, adding that the number of injured in the county was not immediately known
Firefighters in the town of Denton, about 37 miles north of Forth Worth, Texas, posted on X that emergency personnel were responding to a marina “for multiple victims, some reported trapped.”
Earlier Saturday evening, the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, said via the social platform City. “If you are in the path of this storm, hide now!” » It said.
A subsequent message at 10:05 p.m. said the storms had left the area, but warned of a storm moving through North Texas and possibly affecting parts of south-central Oklahoma.
At 10:24 p.m., the Fort Worth Weather Service office issued a message warning residents of Era and Valley View that they were in the direct path of a possible tornado and should immediately seek shelter. The Forth Worth office continued to post shelter advisories and warnings to track the storm’s movement until midnight and separately issued a severe thunderstorm warning with “bullet-sized hail golf” possible.
The Weather Service Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma warned the X of a dangerous storm moving through the northeastern part of the state until 2 a.m. and issued severe thunderstorm advisories for communities such as Hugo, Boswell, Fort Towson, Grainola, Foraker and Herd.
The Norman office compared the conditions on Saturday to “a pile of brush soaked in gasoline”. Forecasters said any storm that forms could explode with large hail, dangerous winds and tornadoes.
“There is a small chance that most matches will be missed and we only see a few storms today. Still, it’s not a matchup I’d want to play. It only takes one storm to have an impact,” he said via Facebook.
Excessive heat, especially in May, posed a danger in South Texas, where the heat index was expected to approach 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some places over the weekend. Actual temperatures will be lower, although still in the triple digit range, but the humidity will make it feel even hotter.
The region is at the northern end of a heat dome stretching from Mexico to South America, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Sunday looks to be the warmest day with record highs for the late May forecast for Austin, Brownsville, Dallas and San Antonio, Taylor said.
Brownsville and Harlingen, near the Texas-Mexico border, already set new records Saturday for the May 25 date — 99 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively — according to the weather service.
Red Flag fire warnings were also in place in West Texas, throughout New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado. Humidity was very low, less than 10%, and wind gusts of up to 60 mph were recorded.
“We have very dry air, warm temperatures and strong winds creating a high fire risk over a large area … which can lead to rapid spread or uncontrollable fires,” Taylor said.
Meanwhile, several inches of snow fell Friday morning in Rolla, North Dakota, about 10 miles from the Canadian border.
April and May were a busy month for tornadoes, especially in the Midwest. Climate change is increasing the severity of storms around the world.
April saw the United States second most tornadoes checked in. So far for 2024, the country is already 25% ahead of the average number of tornadoes, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman.
Iowa was hit hard this week, when a deadly tornado devastated Greenfield. And other storms caused flooding and wind damage elsewhere in the state.
The storm system causing the severe weather was expected to move east as the Memorial Day weekend continued, bringing rain that could delay Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 race in Indiana and more severe storms in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.
The risk of severe weather shifts to North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
New York Post
