Historical Storm unfolding in Texas and Oklahoma

a reply to: Neysa

Thanks! I'll let my parents know what's up. They're in San Antonio and didn't even mention inclement weather..

Stay safe.

Thank you yes we are fine here, some howling storms but the worst of it missed our neighborhood Thank God.
Be careful out there. I dread the morning news and wonder what it looks like outside. Scary. Hugs to you all!

Look at this system digging with the actual circulation in Mexico with band like arms reaching out, this my friends is a seriously powerful storm system.

a reply to: TechniXcality

Checking back in, still alive. Actually slept thru most of it, just now waking up. Things are pretty calm outside right now, mild rain.

a reply to: BIGPoJo

Were ok here in Ok. Dallas didn't fair too well...sadly .. prayers out to those affected. .


mobile.nytimes.com...://www.google.com/

a reply to: ReadLeader

Nature is scary, so sad that those people died during the holidays.

Prayers for their loved ones.

It's so sad that 8 deaths were from the cars blown off the George Bush Turnpike, which is 20 ft high. These poor souls did not hear or see the tornado before it hit.

I'm in Frisco, about 40 minutes away but I use that turnpike all the time. It's so scary how life can turn on a dime.

originally posted by: texasgirl
It's so sad that 8 deaths were from the cars blown off the George Bush Turnpike, which is 20 ft high. These poor souls did not hear or see the tornado before it hit.

I'm in Frisco, about 40 minutes away but I use that turnpike all the time. It's so scary how life can turn on a dime.

That's a nightmare. In a car there's nowhere to go, and if you are caught in traffic, there is nowhere your car is going even if you know the storm is coming. Now imagine being trapped in a car, in traffic on an overpass like that. I can't even imagine how awful that would have been.

a reply to: texasgirl

I have to wonder, why in the world did they not realize the weather was so bad. It was forecasted days in advance...

It was on the news and on the radio..... sadly, for reasons unknown loved ones are no more.....

originally posted by: ReadLeader
a reply to: texasgirl

I have to wonder, why in the world did they not realize the weather was so bad. It was forecasted days in advance...

It was on the news and on the radio..... sadly, for reasons unknown loved ones are no more.....

I honestly don't know. Blaring the stereo, singing Xmas songs...Not realizing there's a tornado screaming toward them until it's too late.

There are people out there that won't let some bad weather stop them from snagging those after-Xmas deals. It was also dinner time so restaurants were full. And it happened on a Saturday night.

a reply to: ReadLeader

How many of them were locals?

Sometimes, you travel and there isn't much choice. This was the day after Christmas and how many were trying to beat the blizzard? The odds of getting stuck in a tornado are really tiny after all.

I remember traveling back after a track meet once in college from Aimes, IA, back to Manhattan, KS. We went through a tornado outbreak of similar intensity. I was with my folks, but we went through about five active tornado warnings between Aimes and Kansas City/Lawrence. The team bus was about an hour behind us and did the same. They actually saw one twister from the bus on the highway.

But again, none of us had much choice on the travel schedule.

a reply to: [post]ketsuko
a reply to: [/post]texasgirlI

I guess I'm just a news junkie. The first thing I do before even thinking about walking out my door is a weather check. Lived in Tornado Alley my whole life. We have snag bags and evac plans ....

There is always a threat with weather. The apps for phones are abundant. Still sad....

a reply to: ReadLeader

I'm a weather junkie too for matters of health, but in this as in so many other things, if it doesn't carry a Kardashian stamp a lot of folks are just plain oblivious.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yes, agreed. I'm watching the news now and they said ample warning was given. We are experiencing flash flooding here. We've had 4.5 inches of rain in 48hrs... looks like another 4.0 on the way 37 degrees. ...

Lol. The Kardashians (cough cough) ... don't forget Katelyn Jenner.... ha

a reply to: ReadLeader

As it is, I am sitting here now seeing a Winter Storm Warning for my area with .3" of ice forecast with perhaps 3 to 6" of snow on top of that starting tonight and I am thinking the 4 hours of work I am supposed to have tomorrow don't sound all that worth it.

originally posted by: ReadLeader
a reply to: [post]ketsuko
a reply to: [/post]texasgirlI

I guess I'm just a news junkie. The first thing I do before even thinking about walking out my door is a weather check. Lived in Tornado Alley my whole life. We have snag bags and evac plans ....

There is always a threat with weather. The apps for phones are abundant. Still sad....

I check the weather all the time before leaving. I spend half my time on the road so I always need to be aware.

a reply to: TechniXcality

Eastern Nebraska here...our fear at this time of year is the B word. Blizzard.

Our forecast discussion this morning was much less ominous than last night's. Although the models are still not in good agreement, even so close to the event, it seams the winds won't be as strong, and may actually decrease as the low fills in, as it gets up here. I also looked at Amarillos discussion this morning. Even last night I felt they were doing a little too much chicken little. They backed off the doom and gloom.

I see a very large mid latitude cyclone in the making, with abundant moisture to tap. I'm not sensing historic though. You'd have to top the Blizzard of 1888 to call it historic. This storm ain't it. Not enough wind, and a lot of dry air is gonna get sucked in.

We'll see, heck it's still in Mexico. Our real real big storms rarely bottom out in Mexico.

Not sure if the link will work but it is pictures from a wrecker cleaning up the cars that were hit on the freeway. A friend that runs a wrecker service posted to my facebook.

www.facebook.com...

OK it works for me. We just came under tornado watch until 4PM.

originally posted by: ReadLeader
a reply to: texasgirl

I have to wonder, why in the world did they not realize the weather was so bad. It was forecasted days in advance...

It was on the news and on the radio..... sadly, for reasons unknown loved ones are no more.....

We were out driving in the storm and the tornado hit 5 miles away from our house (no damage here.) We're under another flash flood watch (a friend's son was killed in flash flooding here about a month ago) but our house is at the 500 year flood mark... basically, most of the Dallas area would be underwater before a flood reached my house. Others are not so lucky.

Texas weather changes rapidly.

Storms like this are NOT unusual (we live in Tornado Alley.)

The thunderstorms that preceded it built up slowly (it started to rain as we were driving back from my mother-in-law's house in Ft. Worth) and by the time we neared home (about half an hour before the tornado hit), the rain in the area had let up. We had several weather alerts as we were driving, but I didn't see anything (it had gotten quite dark.)

Again... we've seen storms like this (and much worse) around Texas. It's typical weather.

The cars on Bush were in a section where they couldn't get off.

Right now I'm checking news sources so that I can post help sources on Facebook. Although none of my friends were directly affected, they may know others who were.