Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Southern Plains; Fire Weather Threat in the Southwest U.S.

Thunderstorms, some severe, may produce heavy to excessive rainfall and isolated flooding over portions of the Southern Plains today and Saturday. Dry conditions, combined with gusty winds and low relative humidities will continue to support an elevated to critical fire weather threat in the Desert Southwest into to early next week. Read More >

North Texas Severe Weather April 23, 2008
Erath-Palo Pinto and Tarrant-Johnson Counties

During the late afternoon hours on Wednesday, April 23, 2008, supercell thunderstorms spread from west Texas into parts of north Texas. Additional thunderstorms developed through the evening hours as the complex of thunderstorms moved east. Reports of tornadoes, very large hail, damaging straight-line winds, and flash flooding accompanied the thunderstorms. (Read the Local Storm Report Summary)

The WSR-88D radar images below show a supercell thunderstorm near the Erath - Palo Pinto County line at 647 pm CDT. The bright red and pink colors in the radar reflectivity represent values up to 70 dBZ that were caused by very large hailstones. Also note the distinct hook echo on the southern part of the storm straight west of Lipan. The Doppler Velocity image, also taken at 647 pm CDT, shows a large, well-defined counterclockwise circulation pattern across extreme northern Erath County. The red colors in the storm-relative mean radial velocity image indicate winds blowing AWAY from the radar located at KFWS (Fort Worth Spinks airport); the green colors represent winds blowing toward the radar (or from west to east). This supercell thunderstorm prompted the issuance of Tornado Warnings across this area Wednesday evening. This statement gives a brief summary of the known tornadoes that occurred in this area.

KFWS Reflectivity Image at 6:47 pm CDT - April 23, 2008

KFWS Storm Relative Velocity Image at 6:47 pm CDT - April 23, 2008

KFWS Reflectivity Image at 6:47 pm CDT - April 23, 2008	KFWS Storm Relative Velocity Image at 6:47 pm CDT - April 23, 2008
These two WSR-88D images were taken at a radar elevation angle of 1.5 degrees at 832 pm CDT on 4/23/08. Intense thunderstorms were moving across Johnson and southwest Tarrant County. The pattern in the red colors (50+ dBZ) resembles an arc shape or "bow", indicating that very strong low level winds were associated with the line of storms across this area. The mean radial velocity image shows a distinct transition area where outbound (relative to the KFWS radar site which is between Crowley and Rendon) velocities are located next to inbound velocities along a radar radial. This transition zone, which represents a region of intense horizontal wind shear, is best defined on the velocity image from the southwest tip of Tarrant County eastward to between Joshua and Burleson. This thunderstorm moved northeast into Tarrant County and was responsible for producing a tornado near Crowley. The results of the damage survey are available.

KFWS Reflectivity Image at 8:32 pm CDT - April 23, 2008 (1.5 degrees)	KFWS Storm Relative Velocity Image at 8:32 pm CDT - April 23, 2008

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Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Southern Plains; Fire Weather Threat in the Southwest U.S.

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