Deadly Texas tornadoes: A closer look at the storms

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Meteorologist Josh John's here in our Fox 4 digital studio, our Fox Local digital studio rather. And we are tracking the potential for more storms tonight after what was an absolutely astounding display of the power of mother nature last night as we had a massive supercell that tracked across multiple counties in North Texas. We're under the gun to possibly see some severe storms again tonight, but the chances lowered. That is the good news.

[00:00:25]We also have new details coming up on confirmed tornadoes that touchdown last night. We'll get to those in a second, but let's talk about what is happening right now. And again, we're bringing you this digital update in lie of the fact that we don't have a 5:00 pm newscast.

[00:00:37]We want to keep you a breast on what's going on weatherwise here in North Texas. So, let's go to the latest and we can switch over to our computer to do that and I'll show you the tornado watch that has been issued. This now runs until 11:00. I do want to stress this does not include the Metroplex. So, not the same situation that we saw last night setting up. However, storms that can form could once again be powerful and the threat is there for isolated tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds. That tornado watch does include Cook, Monte, Jack, and Young County in North Texas, and then continues moving up to the north towards Witchaw Falls.

[00:01:10]And it's basically issued for the one thunderstorm that's been able to pop through the cap and we'll take a look at that right here. So, let's go to clouds and radar and show you that. There it is up there in Witchaw Falls. If you are traveling northwest out of Buouie or Jaxboro, you need to keep this in mind.

[00:01:25]This storm right here, uh we'll get the latest details on that warning. Witchaw Falls, that does include Witchto County for the potential for golf ball size hail and 60 mph winds. But once again, we have a ton of energy in our atmosphere that could fuel this. So even though it's just a little storm right now that could produce golf ball size hail, that hail size could ramp up. And once again, we could be looking at storms that split like what we saw last night, meaning one could go to the north and one could go to the south. And that means that parts of Clay, Archer, and then eventually Monte, Jack, and Young counties could have the potential to be hit by this storm. So, we're going to watch that closely. Real quick, want to look at what's going on with the velocity within that. And notice this is looking well away from the radar site in Fort Worth, but once again, we have twisting of winds. So, this is a supercell thunderstorm where the entire storm is rotating. That's why we have that threat for tornadoes. This still could be in place. So, once again, tornado watch does include our northwestern counties, but does not include the Metroplex, which is good news. Let's talk about what we have setting this up because like I showed you yesterday, we have our radar and our CAP tracker. And the National Weather Service in Fort Worth sent up a balloon around 1:30 from their site in North Fort Worth. And as it went up in the atmosphere, scanning every level because we like to have a whole profile of what's going on in the atmosphere above us, it noticed that once again we have a cap and once again we have energy. But the difference from yesterday is our cap is stronger and the energy is lower.

[00:02:57]Yesterday on a scale of 1 to five it was about a five. Yes. Today we're looking at about a 3.2. So a little bit better than where we were yesterday. So, we don't have as much energy to pull into this storm and we don't have the the uh as strong of a cap. The winds are still there, so anything that forms could twist, but I don't think this will be a situation where it will be as longived and as far of a distance traveled supercell that it would come into the metroplex. Of course, each storm has a mind of their own. Yesterday, the storm created an environment all its own, and that's why it didn't follow the warm front and move into some of our northern counties like we thought it would.

[00:03:37]Instead, that outflow boundary kicked out of it and it rode that all the way down into parts of DFW. So, we'll monitor as we go through the night, but nothing that you need to cancel your plans over. In fact, here's the risk we have tonight. And overall, the risk is lower, too. Remember, yesterday we were looking at a level four moderate risk in parts of North Texas. We only have a level two slight risk. But I I tell you, some of these slight risks can be doozies if you just get one storm that can develop and take advantage of the entire atmosphere. That risk mainly including DFW of the northwest does include some of our western counties should we see any more development along the dry line. But much like yesterday, I'm not seeing that development on the southern part of the dry line. As that storm that you see there in Witchaw County tries to work south, if it works into some of our counties, here's what I think your risks are. Largest risk is going to be hail. Again, I've put that in the high category just because of the energy that's available for it. We could see a storm that could produce baseball size hail like what we saw yesterday.

[00:04:34]Instead of a few tornadoes, I'm calling for isolated tornadoes post sunset.

[00:04:38]Should a storm stay twisting and take advantage of the winds that increase here as we go through the evening. We can't rule out an isolated tornado. That being said, I don't think we'll see a repeat of last night, but the same areas could be under the gun. So, we'll watch it again. And then wind 60 to 65 could be possible and a flooding could also be possible because whatever is going to be moving will be slowm moving. The atmosphere is not expecting a fastmoving storm kind of like what we saw last night. It'll likely crawl. So here's the latest iteration of futurecast. Notice it does show that potential for storms developing over towards Witchaw Falls.

[00:05:13]Currently as we go through the night those attempt to work southeast.

[00:05:16]Futurecast says the cap wins out, but you can never trust storms here in the spring in Texas. So, we'll just continue to monitor for some of our northwestern counties. I want to bring you some details that just and and by the way, the threat likely is over after 10 11:00 at night. That's when the tornado watch expires. So, we'll keep watching that.

[00:05:35]But I do not think this will be an overnight threat. If a storm happens to create its own environment, again, all bets are off, but I I just don't see the same signals that we were seeing yesterday that suggest we'll have as much energy to fuel those storms once the sun goes down. I do want to tell you some of the latest information we have from the National Weather Service and it's what's in this paper right here.

[00:05:56]The uh National Weather Service whenever a storm shows that it might have produced a tornado, they send out a crew that goes and surveys that potential possible tornado path to determine, hey, was this winds or was this a tornado?

[00:06:10]And in this case, they went out at about 8 a.m. today to parts Parker and Wise County. And what they found was we have at least two tornadoes confirmed. Now, I have seen pictures from chasers up in Jack and Archer County that as I perused Twitter, they were showing some of the stuff that was happening yesterday with that entire storm. And it looked like it produced multiple tornadoes on its path.

[00:06:31]That means that in the next coming days, we could see more tornadoes confirmed from this as we move up into Jack and potentially Archer County. Fort Worth handles Jack County. The National Weather Service in Norman handles Archer County. So, we'll see what they end up uh coming with, but as of right now, two tornadoes have been confirmed Saturday night, last night, and that includes one in the Runaway Bay community and one in the Springtown community. We also had a fatality confirmed in Runaway Bay and a fatality confirmed in Springtown. Have we we we haven't had any uh any more than that that you've heard of as we've gone through the day, right, Joseph?

[00:07:07]Okay, so as of right now, two fatalities from last night's storm. Here's the details on the Runaway Bay tornado and this formed on the southwest side of Lake Bridgeport in Runaway Bay, likely on the south side of Runaway Bay. Now, the width was about half a mile wide.

[00:07:23]So, as you look at this map and you see where that path goes, know that it may be a little bit off from the actual path, but this is a approximate path.

[00:07:31]And the crazy thing about this tornado was most tornadoes move east northeast.

[00:07:35]This one was backing to the west. So, it formed on the south side of Runaway Bay and moved west towards the Jack and Wise County line. That's that black line you see there on the left. It dissipated before reaching Jack County. But here's here's the details. The survey team determined that a EF2 tornado occurred on the southwest side of Runaway Bay with peak winds estimated to be 130 mph.

[00:07:56]This tornado formed just south of Highway 380 near Port Oall Drive and Pinto Court where a 100 to 200 yard wide swath of EFZO tornado damage was observed. The tornado then continued towards the west uprooting trees and snapping large branches as it approached Cineon Trail, pardon Simmeron Trail. By this time, the tornado was nearly a third of a mile wide, causing substantial damage and minor roof damage before moving into a residential area between Simmeron Trail and Jasper Creek Road. Basically, Jasper Creek Road, let me see if I can get my pointer here.

[00:08:30]Jasper Creek Road is right in here. All the trails that we're talking about is the subdivision there on the southwest side of Runaway Bay. So, that should be able to tell you where this occurred.

[00:08:41]Let me clear that arrow and we'll go back to this. Most homes in this neighborhood sustained high high-end EF0 and EF1 damage with heavily damaged manufactured homes, broken windows, failed garage doors, uprooted trees, and substantial roof damage to single family homes. Within the broader area of EF0, EF1 damage, small vortices embedded in the tornado. So, this tornado was half a mile wide and within it, we had multiple vortices. We call that a multiortex tornado. is what happens when you have the whole messyone come down to the ground in this case or or at least a large chunk of the messocyone which is the overall rotating storm come down to the ground. The first instance was a two-floor residence on the northeast corner of Cactus Canyon Drive and Brook View Drive intersection. Here the home lost a substantial amount of roofing along with some exterior walls on the second floor. Two single wide manufactured homes in the vicinity of this house were completely destroyed with debris displaced away from their original location. A second home in the northeast side of the neighborhood on Cactus Canyon Drive lost nearly all of its roofing. Wind estimates of this damage range from 120 to 125 mph. The most intense damage was observed with a double wide manufactured home near the intersection of Overland Trail and Cumberland Trail. The metal frame was found 100 yards downwind of the original home site with additional debris several hundred yards to the west. Severe tree damage was also noted just on the west side of Jasper Creek Road. on the left side of our path. Now, this damage was consistent with a high-end EF2 intensity tornado containing estimated wind speeds of up to 130 mph. This is where the fatality occurred. The tornado was also peak width during this time, just over half a mile wide. The tornado continued into a forested area, dissipating approximately 600 yardds west of Jasper Creek Road, completing its 1.4 mile long path. So, as we saw during our coverage last night, the storm moved west. It was also a short-lived tornado only lasting from 9, pardon, from 9:03 to 907. So, it was only on the ground for 4 minutes.

[00:10:47]But within that time frame, it caused EF2 damage and unfortunately led to a fatality. That was tornado one we were tracking there on the west side of Runaway Bay. Again, a weird tornado where it moved west out of the main circulation of the storm. Sometimes that happens when a storm takes this deviant motion to the south. Weird things can happen within its updraft. Here was the second tornado. It was a longer lived tornado in Parker County starting northwest of Springtown to west of Ail rated EF1. 9.8 miles on the ground and it ran from 9:38 p.m. to 10:10 p.m. So roughly 30 minutes long it was on the ground.

[00:11:26]Here's the details from that. An EF1 tornado occurred in Parker County starting west northwest of Springtown and tracking nearly 10 miles southeast.

[00:11:34]The width of the tornado damage is listed as 2/3 of a mile, but the distinction between the tornado track and nearby RFD winds of 80 to 90 mph is tough to determine. The actual tornado likely wasn't that wide. And analysis of the track will continue. Okay. When it says RFD winds within a supercell, you've got a downdraft and an updraft.

[00:11:55]But on the back side of the storm, you'll get what we call rear flank downdraft. We saw this happening as we were analyzing the radar. The wind started gusting out ahead of the storm and really gusting and then wrapping up into the circulation, creating a very broad but fast circulating area that within it you likely had a tornado spinning and potentially multiple tornadoes spinning. This is why you had such a big swath of damage and why on radar at times radar was estimating 148 mileph winds about 2,000 ft above the ground that mixed down into where this tornado was and you likely had little bursts rotating around it. That's why we were so concerned about the Springtown and the Ail community last night. Uh damage along the path of the tornado was majority large tree limbs damage and damage to metal buildings and roofs. Two homes in very different places along the track sustained significant damage where the second story of each home was partially missing. These two homes were the justification for the 105 maximum mileph winds and there's another page in here.

[00:13:05]Actually, it looks like that is the end of that. So, that is the end of the details on the Springtown storm, but we have a lot of damage. is the National Weather Service. Of course, we'll continue to be uh looking into that. By the way, that Springtown storm was wider. The tornado was potentially 6.65 miles wide. So, you're talking about two large tornadoes that had very, very rapid motion within them. And we really just had some in insane storms moving through the metroplex last night. Not to mention all of the hail and wind reports we received. Now that we have all that, I want to ensure a few of your questions on chat before we let you get back to your evening. So, let me go ahead and pull that up on Facebook and we'll see a couple of your questions.

[00:13:53]So, here's some of the questions and I'm trying to read them. Here we go. Um, thank you Edie for the nice comment. Uh, is there a chance that the watches will be extended? There is a chance, but it will take that storm that's developing to reach all the way down to the bottom of that tornado watch and then potentially they could move that and expand it south. Uh Alyssa is asking, is there going to be another round? And what about Johnson County? I think Johnson County is out of the woods tonight. It depends on where this storm tracks, but it will take a long time for a storm that's moving about 25 miles per hour to get from Witchaw Falls all the way down to I 20, if not further south.

[00:14:33]And by that time, I really think the cap starts to win out uh over the metroplex, which is why I'm really thinking that the biggest threat will actually be to the south or to pardon to the north of the metroplex. So hopefully that answers your questions on if the watch will expand or not. I'm trying to see if there are more uh questions. I don't see a lot of comments on here. Joseph, do you see any more?

[00:14:58]I want to make sure my system's not misreading this.

[00:15:03]Try once more.

[00:15:07]I know we fed you a lot of information, so hopefully that helps. But, uh, in case you're joining us just now, two tornadoes confirmed, Parker and Wise County, and tonight we could see more storms develop. Here's what futurecast shows. It says the storms that are up there fall apart. I don't completely buy that. I do think they could work into some of our northwestern counties, but here's the latest on that storm, by the way, and we'll just walk through it, see what it's doing, see if it's behaving.

[00:15:33]And as of right now, it is. It is splitting. So, this will be interesting.

[00:15:37]Your first cell you see up here by Burke Bernett, that'll take off into Oklahoma.

[00:15:41]Chances are this cell near Witchaw Falls will track towards Lake Arrowhead. I think it's Lake Arrowhead there in eastern Clay County or western Clay County. And that'll also track into Archers. So, we'll watch it for Monte and Jack County, but as of right now, it looks like that storm is behaving in Witchaw Falls. Again, we'll likely see this storm work into some of our northwestern counties as we go through the night. We'll be tracking it for you.

[00:16:05]If you're watching on Fox, we're going to have information crawling at your screen should a warning come out. If we need to break into programming, we will.

[00:16:12]And if not, we will cover it in a digital manner, either with post or if we get on here live on Fox Local. But, we're going to keep you updated through the night. Stay with Fox. We're going to keep you forewarned.