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Friday, April 18, 2008

Severe weather summary around North Texas

"There's got to be a morning after..."

By Pegasus News wire

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Anyone watching network TV Thursday night (April 17) in Fort Worth or Dallas or parts thereabouts would have been rightfully concerned by the constant long-winded interruptions to programming, warning at one point of up to GRAPEFRUIT-sized hail (!) (per computerized storm-modeling software) and winds gusts of 80-90 miles per hour.

The best summary I can find of events that actually occurred across the area is this one from the Star-Telegram. Among other incidents, it details how the nervous nellies at the TCU Barnes & Noble almost put the kibosh on Gov. Rick Perry's book signing and sent everyone home in advance of the (seemingly apocalyptic) storm front. Perry, however - drawing upon either a reservoir of courage or a studied indifference to forecast events - continued signing books and lived to tell about it.

Suggestion for local weather forecasters: chuck that computerized hailstone modeling software and stick to on-the-ground reports.

posted by JM

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Comments

Scott Doyle

Scott Doyle Verified

March, April and May in North Texas - if it's gonna rain, it might hail. Why the hell did you interrupt 30 Rock to tell me this?

Every time it's supposed to rain in these 3 months, I make it a point to park my car in a safe spot if available. How f-ing difficult is this? There's nothing we can do about the hail, stop giving people panic attacks.

Pretty sure when chunks of ice start falling from the sky, people will take cover. If there's a twister, tell us. Until then, LET ME WATCH MY PRECIOUS PRIME-TIME COMEDY!

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC

DC Anonymous

I bet panic would be lower and ratings higher if they used this storm model http://www.stormmodels.com/womendetai... instead of WeatherWarn or whatever.

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren

Mike Orren Staff

Heh. My two favorite things last night were:

  • Watching the anchors stumble over their attempts to try to explain Hulu to the unwashed masses as an alternative means of getting their Must-see comedies.

  • The exhortations on all channels for viewers to submit photos: "Please send in your photos so we can say we made a nod to this whole citizen media thing. But please stay safe and don't try to send us anything until the storm is over 'cos we're really not going to do anything meaningful with your shaky iPhone snaps anyhoo."

So glad it's safety first.

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Erin Rice

Erin Rice Staff

As I was just e-telling Teresa, the conditions in Fort Worth were pretty scary. My boyfriend's roommate was stranded under a bridge by Lake Worth for some time with several other cars because the driving was too dangerous. Hopefully, I can steal his pictures from the storm sometime later.

At the apartment, there were some precarious moments when we saw black clouds spitting rapid-fire lightning move in very fast and kind of curve around the complex. Of course, just at that moment, the satellite reception cut out and we lost the weather broadcast. It was a bit ominous, but the golf ball to softball sized hail we were warned of fell short. A couple minutes of pea sized hail was all, and the storm moved on.

Much of the weather forecast was predictable and funny, including the in-cloud hail prediction software. The best quote of the night, however, was when the weather guy was trying to explain what a "squall line" meant. According to his expert definition, a Squall Line is "a line of squally weather." OMG, THANK YOU WEATHER GUY!

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Rachel Skinner Verified

My favorite part was the girl on WFAA who was totaly dry downtown looking weird with an umbrella. She even tried explaining why she was holding it while it wasn't raining (lots of wind). Cut to 5 minutes later when they go from the calm studio to her trying desperately to hold on to her umbrella as it's being torn in to pieces...and then it flies away! I couldn't help but laugh at her misfortune.

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99

Billusa99 Anonymous

I'm glad we live in a concrete house with 11 inch walls. Wind, what wind?

So, we are sound asleep and someone is hammering the front door and ringing the bell at 10:50 PM. I stumble out and it's the police. My hair is a mess and my robe is wrinkled... damn. Seems they had a 911 hang-up from our address. Since the cats can't lift the receiver (no opposable thumbs) it could not have been us. They apologize, but said I did the right thing not opening the door to 2 guys in yellow raincoats until they showed me a badge. Seems we were the third case like that in the past 15 minutes in our 2 block area (due to phone issues, they now thought).

When they left, I checked the phone and it's just static. This morning, it's working and there's a 10:40 PM call-back from 911 that quickly got cut off.

Go figure... nice to see they are on their toes, however!

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EdWeirdness Anonymous

I'd be more impressed to attend a Rick Perry book reading!

The pop-ups always seem to surprise him so!

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Alex Bentley

Alex Bentley Staff

Well, we know he's not affected by children.

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

lakewooder

lakewooder Anonymous

Hey y'all I am 50 and the only tornado of any consequence in Dallas was a year before my birth. Something to think about?

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle

Scott Doyle Verified

Tell that to Ft. Worth(less).

2 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

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