Severe weather in the Dallas-Fort Worth area left more than 500,000 homes without power on Tuesday, and more storms are expected to move into the region for the rest of the week.
Weather service officials reported early Tuesday afternoon that North and Central Texas could see some localized or scattered thunderstorms late in the afternoon. These storms could be strong or severe and could bring hail and damaging winds.
Rain will continue through the night as additional storms develop west of Interstate 35 and move east. These storms will also intensify and could be accompanied by hail, damaging winds and flooding.
The National Weather Service said it could not rule out the possibility of tornadoes developing Tuesday night.
Steve Fano, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said the type of weather system currently developing could produce brief tornadoes that often go undetected because of the large area of strong winds, which is why weather officials likely won’t be able to determine if any tornadoes were produced in Tuesday morning’s storms, he said.
“We can’t rule out the possibility of a short-lived tornado, but when you look at the long-distance tornadoes we saw a few days ago, [we are] “We didn’t expect that to happen overnight with this system,” he said.
Officials also report showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue into the weekend, with heavy rains likely to cause flooding in certain areas again.
Fano also said it’s very likely that Dallas-Fort Worth residents will be awakened by emergency weather alerts for the rest of the week, just like they were before 6 a.m. Tuesday.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Fano said. “We basically have multiple chances by the end of the week.”
County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins signed a disaster declaration on Tuesday and announced at a press conference that power outages across Dallas County could last for several days. Lewis Jenkins, along with other officials, urged residents to stay away from downed power lines, stay home if possible, check on loved ones, and avoid driving.
Fano also urged people to keep an eye on weather forecasts over the next few days, make sure they have multiple ways to receive weather alerts in case warnings are issued, especially overnight, and to have plans in place in case more severe weather hits the area.
“You know, there are a lot of people who missed the damage caused by this series of storms,” Fano said, “Next time we may not be so lucky, so we need to have a plan in place in case we are threatened by really severe weather.”
Dallas Weather Forecast by KXAS-TV (NBC)
Wednesday: Partly cloudy to warm with a 50% chance of storms. Low: 69. High: 83. Wind: Southeast 10-15 mph.
Thursday: Partly cloudy to warm with a 40% chance of storms. Low: 70. High: 83. Wind: Southeast 10-15 mph.
Friday: Partly cloudy to warm with a 50% chance of storms. Low: 72. High: 82. Wind: Southeast 10-15 mph.
Saturday (starting in June): Partly cloudy to warm with a 30% chance of storms. Low: 72. High: 87. Wind: Southeast 10-15 mph.
Sunday: Partly cloudy, very warm with a 30% chance of storms. Low: 72. High: 88. Wind: Southeast 10 to 15 mph.
