Fort Worth
Confirmed EF-1 tornado hit Denton and Justin. More severe storms expected Wednesday
Resident describes storm damage, high winds in Fort Worth
Get ready for round two of stormy weather on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado, capable of producing winds between 86-110 mph, touched down in Denton and in Justin on Tuesday night. Weather service teams also surveyed damage around Eagle Mountain Lake, but said they didn’t find evidence of a tornado there.
Large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes are all possible on Wednesday.
Parts of North Texas are in a severe thunderstorm watch until 8 p.m. As of 1 p.m., this watch doesn’t include Tarrant or Dallas counties. However it does include Palo Pinto, Jack, Montague, Cooke and Wise counties up to Wichita Falls and into Oklahoma.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see couple of tornadoes in North Texas today,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Godwin. “It’s looking like thunderstorms should form west and northwest of Fort Worth.”
Just like Tuesday’s storms brought a few surprises, there’s some uncertainty in Wednesday’s forecast.
“I should stress we don’t have a lot of confidence in this model,” Godwin said. “There’s lots of disagreements between the models.”
On Tuesday night, a tornado touched down near the Texas Woman’s University campus. There were also reports of flash flooding in southern Denton County.
One of the hardest areas was the Idiot’s Hill neighborhood in Denton. There are several different theories for how the neighborhood got its name that included once being too far from town or once being home to professors from Denton’s two universities. More can seen on that here.
The Denton Fire Department responded to 37 calls between 5:45 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Tuesday. There was one lightning-related structure fire at a home near the intersection of Lakeview Boulevard and Edwards Road.
Most of the damage across Denton was due to downed trees that fell on houses, cars and into city streets. The most serious damage extended from the TWU campus into the northeast part of the city, said city spokesman Ryan Adams.
In Fort Worth, the same storm damaged a boat dock on Eagle Mountain Lake and there were reports of flash flooding in both northern Tarrant and southern Denton counties. The National Weather Service also received reports of wind damage in Justin in southern Denton County.
A flash flood watch remains in effect until 7 p.m. Thursday for most of North Texas, including the Tarrant, Dallas, Denton, Parker and Wise counties.
“The soil is very saturated,” Godwin said. “It won’t take much to cause flash flooding in some areas.”
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