After large hail pounds north Fort Worth, rain, flooding are main threats on Thursday
Large hail pounded areas in north Fort Worth, Southlake and Keller on Wednesday night, putting some dents in rooftops and cracks in windshields, before it transitioned to heavy rain that continued overnight, according to the National Weather Service.
The rain persisted into Thursday, causing some flooding and ponding on roads, and complicating many people’s drives into work.
MedStar crews responded to 20 crashes with injuries between the time the rain began late Wednesday and around 6 a.m. Thursday, according to Matt Zavadsky, an agency spokesman. In 11 crashes, patients had to be taken to hospitals.
Rain was coming down heavily at times Thursday in the Fort Worth area amid gray and overcast conditions, and chances for precipitation will continue into the weekend, according to Juan Hernandez, a weather service meteorologist.
Hernandez noted that, with water on some area roads, it’s important for people to be careful about hydroplaning through puddles. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea, he said, to grab an umbrella and to be prepared.
“It is springtime in Texas,” he said. “We do get plenty of rain the springtime. So it’s not out of the ordinary.”
He added people can “enjoy the rain before the summer kicks in.”
Many residents in northern Fort Worth and areas farther northeast were still dealing on Thursday morning with damage from hail, which occurred hours earlier between about 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The hail began in northwest Fort Worth, Hernandez said, and then skirted to the northeast into areas like Keller and Southlake. It was part of a major storm system that came with tornado watches and warnings.
Though Tarrant County was briefly in a tornado warning around 8:10 p.m. Wednesday, with sirens blaring and emergency notifications on phones, there were no confirmed tornado touchdowns.
The largest hail was three inches in diameter, bigger than baseball size, reported in Blue Mound, Hernandez said.
Social media on Wednesday night was filled with pictures of hail stones, often next to rulers or tape measures, as well as windshields with cracks or holes.
In the city of Azle in Parker County, high winds caused a trailer to overturn, sending three people to a hospital with injuries, according to KXAS-TV. Six people who lived in the home are now displaced, the station reported.
There will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday morning that will decrease into the night, when there will be a 30 percent chance, the forecast shows.
There’s a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms on Saturday, the forecast shows, and a 40 percent chance on Sunday.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 8:27 AM.
