News: Nasty Weather in Dallas Yesterday

[FlyTexas]

The weather here yesterday took a turn for the worse. Lots of damage but thankfully nobody was injured or killed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSCDSZlqcu4&hd=1

Brian

[Garry Russell]

Thankfully no one was hurt but hard to imaging how.

Incredible power in those things

Have you checked all the winglets are still in place??

[FlyTexas]

Have you checked all the winglets are still in place??

I think my beloved winglets haven't been harmed. Love Field (in Dallas) was spared the brunt of the storm but Dallas/Ft.Worth Airport wasn't so lucky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul6_kLxxqN4

Brian

[airboatr]

Glad to hear you're OK. I saw much of the availabe recordings on the tv.
Absolutely frightful to see the tractor trailers flipping through the air like matchbox toys.

[Paul K]

Maybe after being thrown about, some aircraft now have winglets that didn't have them before. See ? Every cloud has a silver lining.

Talking of the effect a tornado can have on aircraft, here's a link to the story of the B-36's at Carswell. 60% of the entire B-36 fleet put out of action in a few moments.

http://www.cowtown.net/proweb/tornado/tornado.htm

[Chris Trott]

Actually, we had a few injured (under 50 last I heard), some are critical. However, as of now, no one has died from the damage.

It looks bad, but it could have been much worse. The strongest tornado was a moderate EF3. The 1994 Lancaster Tornado (which nearly took out my house) was a strong EF4. The difference in damage levels is several magnatudes. While some houses are destroyed, in 1994, many of the houses were simply wiped off the face of the earth with nothing but clean slabs left behind. Right now the total number of homes and buildings damaged across DFW is approximately 800 from 5 confirmed tornadoes.

[FlyTexas]

Yep Chris, I've been reading today about those injuries too. Nasty stuff tornadoes. Remember the tornado that wiped out Jared Texas? That also was one of those that only leave concrete slabs behind. Thanks Joe. I got lucky with this storm. Part of the storm passed to the east of me while another part of the storm passed to the west of me. It was kind of surreal standing outside listening to emergency sirens wailing from nearby towns but I'm standing there dry and safe. Just got a little rain and pea-sized hail where I live. Thanks for the link Paul. I never knew Carlswell AFB got popped by a tornado. I'll always have a fond place in my heart for Carswell. Back in the early 80's I saw my first (and only) Harrier flight there. I was attending 'Open House' at the base and during a lull in the activity I heard a screaming jet engine. I looked around trying to find the source of all the noise when I suddenly saw a Harrier rise majestically above the crowd. Can still see that image in my mind like it happened yesterday.

Brian

[Chris Trott]

Ahh, the Harrier, the world's most efficient machine for turning taxpayer dollars into pure noise.

Yeah, Carswell has a pretty storied history. Now of course, somehow the Navy got custody of it and it's now NAS/JRB Fort Worth/Carswell Field. Why couldn't they be happy with NAS Dallas/Hensley Field and stay over there? I loved driving down I-20 and watching the Tomcats making approaches over Beaver Creek Lake and the occasional one roaring out to the south. Stupid politicians and their BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) committee.

Anyway, far enough to the side. With all the damaged American Airlines jets, I'm hoping most are MD-80s so that they can keep getting rid of them. Not that I don't like the MD-80, I just don't like American's abortion of a version of them that a normal sized pilot can't fit in comfortably.

[airboatr]

Here is a video of a plane being tossed around at the local airfield during hurricane Wilma.
Near the end, the plane almost became airborne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5XCtgMBMg

and a Cessna gets flipped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5XCtgMBMg

There were also a number of other planes damaged.

And while that was going on, I was home holding a bahama awning to my house after the wall anchors gave way.

I wouldn't want to "experience" a tornado. Thank you no.

[nigelb]

Amazing to see those tractor trailers tossed into the air like they were pieces of styrofoam. Thank heavens there were no fatalities, and the tornadoes hit during daylight hours and not in the middle of the night.

Nigel²