A weak tornado touched down in White Settlement on Wednesday afternoon, causing damage in a park near White Settlement Road, National Weather Service meteorologist Ted Ryan said. There were no injuries reported.
Meanwhile, another round of showers and thunderstorms is possible in North Texas today, coming on the heels of thunderstorms that swept into the area Wednesday and cut power for thousands, disrupted airline flights and rained out the Texas Rangers' game.The tornado in White Settlement was confirmed to have touched down in an area south of White Settlement Road and east of West Loop 820, Ryan said.A crew was sent out Thursday morning to survey the damage and estimate the wind speed, which was determined to be between 75 and 85 miles per hour and registers at the lowest rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, Ryan said."It was a pretty weak tornado," Ryan said.The tornado's path was determined to be a quarter-mile to a half-mile in length and didn't last long, Ryan said. A development of homes on the southwest side of town suffered minor roof damage, knocked over fences and broken tree limbs, White Settlement City Manager Linda Ryan said. Three light poles were also downed and a storage building was destroyed, she said. Very minor structural damage was reported but mostly small trees were uprooted and fences were blown over, White Settlement Fire Marshal RJ Schwartz said. A resident's trampoline was tossed into the air and found about two blocks away, Schwartz said. Several wooden lightposts snapped and a metal post bent by the winds at Central Park in White Settlement, Schwartz said. Oncor crews were called to the scene of a downed power line, he said. No injuries were reported, Schwartz said. Volunteer firefighters helped residents with removing wayward trees and fences until about 8 p.m., Schwartz said. About 1,200 power outages were reported in Dallas-Fort Worth as of 9:45 a.m. Thursday, with about half scattered throughout the Fort Worth area, Oncor spokeswoman Megan Wright said. Almost all are thought to be storm-related, Wright said.Several storms were developing around Comanche and Lampasas, southwest of Tarrant County, but it remained uncertain whether they would move northeast, National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mosier said. If they do arrive, it likely will happen by the early afternoon, he said.Tarrant and Dallas counties and most of North and North-Central Texas were under a severe thunderstorm watch until 3 p.m.Wednesday's storms dumped a little less than 1 1/2 inches of rain on D/FW Airport, Mosier said. There were reports of quarter-sized hail in Keller and winds up to 65 mph in White Settlement.Damage was reported in several locations, with Wise County hit the hardest.Winds estimated at 60 to 70 mph overturned several recreational vehicles at the Smith RV Center on U.S. 287 in Decatur and uprooted trees, according to the Wise County Sheriff's Department. On Tuesday, strong winds blew down signs at Braum's and Taco Bell in Decatur.As thunderstorms kicked up around mid-afternoon Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a "ground stop" to flights coming into D/FW Airport for 21/2 hours.More than 40 flights were diverted, airport spokesman David Magana said, and delays ran from 15 minutes to more than an hour, he said. Concessionaires were asked to remain open late for delayed passengers.In Arlington, the Texas Rangers game was called off in the fourth inning after a rain delay of 2 hours, 21 minutes, with the Rangers leading the Oakland A's 7-0. The game will be made up later.Friday's forecast calls for sunny skies with highs in the upper 70s. Saturday calls for mostly cloudy skies throughout the day with highs in the lower 80s. Lows Sunday morning should be in the upper 50s.Saturday marks the possible return of rain to the area, with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, Mosier said.Sunday's forecast going into Monday calls for partly cloudy skies with highs in the lower 80s and lows around 60.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
