Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tornadoes sweep through Dallas area; significant damage

Seth Robbins Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO – Tornadoes swept through the Dallas area after dark on Saturday evening, causing significant damage, while a blizzard was blanketing parts of New Mexico and West Texas with snow, the latest in the nation’s freakish winter weather pattern that sent temperatures plunging to near zero wind chill in the western Plains even as numerous record highs are forecast for the eastern U.S.

The Texas tornadoes shifted the national focus away from the Southeast, where days of tumultuous weather including tornadoes left 18 people dead over the Christmas holiday period.

National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Bain in Fort Worth said two or possibly three tornadoes touched down in the Dallas area although the full extent of damage would not be known until daylight Sunday.

The twisters – accompanied by torrential rain, wind and some hail – were part of a weather system that could produce major flooding from north Texas through eastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, western Arkansas and parts of Missouri.

On the other side of Texas and including much of New Mexico, a snowstorm accompanied by plunging temperatures was expected to leave up to 16 inches of snow through Sunday evening, according to NWS meteorologist Brendon Rubin-Oster in College Park, Maryland.

Snow fell during the Sun Bowl college football game between Miami and Washington State on Saturday afternoon and El Paso was forecast to get 6 to 8 inches of snow overnight.

Meanwhile, two more deaths linked to weather were reported Saturday in Mississippi, bringing that state’s death toll from severe weather over Christmas to 10. Late Saturday, one death was reported in Alabama.