Tornadoes in the Dallas area - April 3

[brunota2003]

Way more mobile homes in the SE...and way less ground truth.

[katheria]

from what i just saw of the rockwall area, mainly large hail (baseball some areas)
and a few homes damaged

ef1-ef2 id say by the shots i saw on channel 4 news

[Texas Snowman]

A photo of the Forney tornado. Amazing that no one died in this storm.

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu33 ... 3661_n.jpg

[Ntxw]

Some of the videos of the tornado out of Royse City area looked like a large wedge. Probably from the same storm that spawned the tornado in Forney then widened in Rockwall county. Curious to see the NWS survey out of that region.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZNgzENzC9g

[somethingfunny]

Well hey now, let's not jump down FWD's throat over this.

.PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 405 AM CDT TUE APR 3 2012/
LARGE UPPER LEVEL LOW HAS CUTOFF AND IS CURRENTLY STATIONARY OVER
NEW MEXICO. ONE VORT LOBE ROTATED THROUGH NORTHWEST TEXAS MONDAY
EVENING AND IS CURRENTLY PIVOTING INTO COLORADO. FIRST SHORTWAVE
TRACKED A BIT TOO FAR NORTHWEST...AND CONVECTION THAT INITIATED
ON THE DRY LINE STRUGGLED. NEXT SPOKE OF ENERGY WAS ANALYZED AT
00Z ALONG I-40 IN WESTERN NEW MEXICO AND EASTERN ARIZONA...AND
THIS TROUGH AXIS SHOULD BE MOVING THROUGH FAR WEST TEXAS AROUND
DAYBREAK. THE FORCING FOR LIFT FROM THIS UPPER ENERGY SHOULD
BEGIN TO AFFECT OUR CWA BY MID TO LATE MORNING.

OVERNIGHT AIRCRAFT DATA AND MODEL GUIDANCE INDICATES CAP REMAINS
IN PLACE ACROSS MUCH OF THE CWA...BUT HAS SIGNIFICANTLY ERODED
OVER THE WESTERN ZONES ACCORDING TO LATEST LOCAL OBJECTIVE
ANALYSIS. MEANWHILE A NORTH-SOUTH ORIENTED BOUNDARY ../TECHNICALLY
CLASSIFIED AS A WEAK FRONT BECAUSE PASSAGE IS MARKED BY PRESSURE
RISES/.. IS ALONG A LINE FROM OLNEY TO EASTLAND AND IS SLOWLY
MOVING EAST. CONVECTION IS TRYING TO DEVELOP ALONG THE
BOUNDARY...BUT SINCE THERE IS LITTLE SYNOPTIC ASSISTANCE FOR
LIFT AT THIS TIME THE CONVECTION IS REMAINING WEAK AND NON-SEVERE.

EXPECT THE BOUNDARY TO CONTINUE TO SLOWLY TRACK EASTWARD THIS
MORNING...AIDED IN PART BY CONVECTIVE OUTFLOWS. CONVECTION ALONG
THE BOUNDARY SHOULD REMAIN SOMEWHAT ANEMIC UNTIL THE FORCING FOR
ASCENT FROM THE NEXT SHORTWAVE ARRIVES MID-LATE MORNING AND HELPS
TO PRIME THE THERMODYNAMIC PROFILES FOR MORE VIGOROUS CONVECTION.
CAPPING SHOULD BECOME NON-EXISTENT TODAY FOR AREAS NORTH OF A
COMANCHE TO HILLSBORO TO ATHENS LINE...WITH A WEAK CAP REMAINING
ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ZONES. THUS EXPECT MORE WIDESPREAD CONVECTION
NORTH OF THIS LINE AND HAVE POPS GREATER THAN 60 PERCENT IN THIS
AREA...WITH POPS OF 50 PERCENT FARTHER SOUTH. SCATTERED CONVECTION
SHOULD FILL IN ACROSS THE NORTH CENTRAL ZONES BY MIDDAY ALONG AND
AHEAD OF THE BOUNDARY...AND EXPAND SOUTH AND EAST THIS AFTERNOON.
SINCE STORMS WILL NOT WAIT FOR PEAK HEATING TO DEVELOP TODAY AND
LAPSE RATES LOWER TO 7-8 DEG/KM...INSTABILITY WILL NOT BE QUITE AS
HIGH AS YESTERDAY. HOWEVER CAPES ARE STILL EXPECTED TO RANGE
BETWEEN 1500-2000 J/KG AND STRONGER DEEP LAYER SHEAR PROFILES
WILL SUPPORT SUPERCELL STRUCTURES OUT AHEAD OF THE BOUNDARY. HAIL
AND WIND WILL BE THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT. LOW LEVEL FLOW IS
NOTABLY WEAKER...BUT DOES CONTAIN SOME DECENT DIRECTIONAL TURNING
AND THUS A LOW TORNADO THREAT CAN/T BE DISCOUNTED. CONVECTION WILL
GRADUALLY WORK EASTWARD ACROSS THE CWA DURING THE DAY AND SHOULD
BE EAST OF I-35 BY 7PM...AND EXITING THE EASTERN CWA BY MIDNIGHT.

UPPER LEVEL LOW WILL TRACK ACROSS OKLAHOMA DURING THE NEXT COUPLE
OF DAYS. THE NORTHERN ZONES MAY CONTEND WITH SOME WRAP AROUND LOW
CLOUDS...BUT OTHERWISE GENERALLY MOSTLY SUNNY SKIES ARE EXPECTED.
DRIER AND SLIGHTLY COOLER AIR WILL WORK INTO THE AREA FROM THE
WEST WEDNESDAY...WITH A BIT OF A REINFORCING FRONT THURSDAY WHEN
WINDS TURN MORE NORTHERLY. HIGHS WILL RUN NEAR 80 WEDNESDAY AND
THE MID 70S NORTH TO LOWER 80S SOUTH ON THURSDAY. LOWS WILL
BENEFIT FROM DECENT RADIATIONAL COOLING AND DROP OFF INTO THE 50S
BOTH NIGHTS. WEAK RETURN FLOW SETS UP ON FRIDAY AND MOISTURE
GRADUALLY INCREASES BY SATURDAY. LATEST MODEL GUIDANCE BRINGS A
WEAK FRONT AND STALLS IT ACROSS THE NW ZONES ON SATURDAY. GFS/GEM
MODELS ARE INEXPLICABLY WET WITH THIS SYSTEM OVER THE WEEKEND
DESPITE A TOTAL LACK OF UPPER LEVEL SUPPORT FOR RAIN. ECMWF IS
FAVORED...AS IT SHOWS SOME THREAT OF RAIN SHOWERS...BUT KEEPS QPF
LOW. WILL SHOW SLIGHT CHANCE POPS FROM SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH
SUNDAY NIGHT WITH THE STALLED FRONT. A STRONGER FRONT WILL ARRIVE
MONDAY NIGHT AND WE HAVE SLIGHT CHANCE POPS AS IT MOVES THROUGH.

TR.92

This ain't Wal-Mart, we don't discount.

[Cyclenall]

There is a tornado warning for the city of new orleans. Stationary storm take cover.

Edit: Canceled the tornado warning, flash flood warning instead.

This is from the other thread. I saw how there was a FF warning on NO but the TOR warning was still posted in text. Wouldn't you know it, after all that has taken place in the last 24 hours there is a tornado warning for the city of New Orleans! I don't know of very many stationary tornadoes so that would be different.

I wouldn't be surprised if the final damage total exceeds 1 billion from this event...just as much as the major tornado outbreak from March 2. This outbreak was very heavy on the damage aspect of things and the 110 aircraft at DFW airport that were damaged could rack up the expenses like its nobody's business.

Here are some things I noticed:

- Many different types of tornadoes occurred (Rope, Wedge, Cone, Trunk, Cylinder (stovepipe?), Multiple-vortex, and more
- Jimmy Kimmel Live talked about the tornadoes and used the footage that CNN showed during the evening of the man who kept saying "Holy Shoot!" over and over (its funny, funniest tornado video possibly ever)
- Over 100 reports of severe weather on April 3 including 13+ tornadoes
- 38th anniversary of the Super Outbreak when it occurred

One major thing is how much tornado footage was captured during yesterday. There is probably going to be a lot more than March 2 due to the dense population areas. I've already seen quite a few of them (most of them remarkable with lots of debris in the air) and they keep coming so this is a good time to monitor YouTube and social media websites with video.

Here are three and these are super recent and just uploaded:

From Kennedale TX (below video) which hasn't been seen yet until now. Cool sound.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOM5B7BfV3o[/youtube]

Near Royse City TX, Warning: This video has really bad language in it. This actually looks like a different view of the same time Brandon Sullivan's vid was taken. Another unbelievable close-call and these guys had no idea how much danger they were in...they could have been killed easy if the tornado went over them!! You can see how furious the weather got outside as the tornado just missed their house!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ_wpR1qkOs[/youtube]

Construction workers nearly hit by tornado while outside in Lancaster TX. Another example of a close-call and they are lucky to be alive as well. Amazing flying stuff so close to them:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVRTNWXwyN8[/youtube]

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1230 AM CDT WED APR 04 2012

.TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON

.DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE.

..REMARKS..

1158 PM TSTM WND DMG 3 NE NEW ORLEANS 30.00N 90.05W
04/03/2012 ORLEANS LA BROADCAST MEDIA

ROOF BLOWN OFF OF HOUSE AT GENTILLY AND FRANKLIN AVENUES.
SEVERAL HOMES DAMAGED. POSSIBLE TORNADO.

Wow, its possible a tornado did hit New Orleans when everyone was sleeping! And stationary .

[somethingfunny]

From FWD this morning:

/APRIL 3RD TORNADO OUTBREAK/
SURVEY TEAMS WILL BE HEADING OUT EARLY TO ASSESS THE DAMAGE THAT
OCCURRED ACROSS NORTH TEXAS YESTERDAY FROM THE TORNADIC
SUPERCELLS. APPROXIMATELY 11-13 AREAS OF DAMAGE HAVE BEEN REPORTED
AND WILL BE SURVEYED TODAY AND ON THURSDAY IF NEEDED. IT IS
UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME EXACTLY HOW MANY TORNADOES THERE WERE AND THE
SURVEY TEAMS TODAY WILL BE WORKING TO DETERMINE A MORE CONCRETE
NUMBER. INFORMATION ABOUT THE SURVEYS WILL BE DISSEMINATED
THROUGHOUT THE DAY THROUGH OUR WEBPAGE AND FACEBOOK PAGE AS THE
SURVEY TEAMS INVESTIGATE THE DAMAGE. A MORE COMPLETE WRITE-UP WILL
LIKELY NOT BE ISSUED UNTIL LATE THIS EVENING.

AT THIS TIME YESTERDAY...ALL EVIDENCE WAS SUGGESTING THE EVENT
WOULD BE A FAIRLY TYPICAL SPRING SEVERE WEATHER DAY ACROSS
NORTH TEXAS. IT WAS ANTICIPATED THAT A LINE OF SEVERE STORMS
WOULD FORM AROUND MIDDAY AND MOVE EAST ACROSS PART OF THE REGION.
THE POTENTIAL FOR TORNADOES WAS DISCUSSED BUT IT WAS THE MESOSCALE
FEATURES THAT PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN WHAT ENDED UP BEING AN
OUTBREAK ACROSS NORTH TEXAS. IT APPEARS AN OUTFLOW BOUNDARY FROM
STORMS OVER OKLAHOMA EARLY TUESDAY MORNING ENDED UP BEING A KEY
PLAYER IN ENHANCING THE TORNADO THREAT. THIS OUTFLOW BOUNDARY PUSHED
SOUTH ACROSS THE RED RIVER YESTERDAY MORNING AND REACHED THE
INTERSTATE 20 CORRIDOR BEFORE STALLING. DISCRETE SUPERCELLS MANAGED
TO FORM AHEAD OF THE DEVELOPING LINE OF STORMS. AS THESE SUPERCELLS
MOVED NORTH AND CROSSED THE OUTFLOW BOUNDARY...THEY ENTERED AN
ENVIRONMENT WITH INCREASED LOW LEVEL SHEAR DUE TO EASTERLY SURFACE
WINDS. IT WAS ALSO NOTED BY LOCAL REAL TIME MODELING THAT THE SURFACE
TO 3KM CAPE WAS VERY HIGH IN THE AREAS WHERE THE TORNADOES OCCURRED.
A LINK BETWEEN INCREASED LOW LEVEL CAPE AND TORNADOES HAS BEEN FOUND
IN PREVIOUS RESEARCH. MORE IN DEPTH STUDY AND ANALYSIS WILL LIKELY
BE DONE ON THIS DAY IN THE NEAR FUTURE. THIS WAS A GOOD EXAMPLE
OF HOW SMALL MESOSCALE FEATURES CAN QUICKLY CHANGE THE STORM
ENVIRONMENT ON ANY GIVEN DAY WHEN SEVERE WEATHER IS ANTICIPATED.
UNFORTUNATELY IT IS STILL VERY DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE
MODELS TO RESOLVE THESE SMALL MESOSCALE FEATURES...AND IT IS WHY WE
URGE EVERYONE TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE WEATHER ON DAYS WHEN SEVERE
WEATHER IS EXPECTED.

[CrazyC83]

It's the little things that matter.

Yet, if the same cells developed 100 miles to the northwest, this would have been a non-event with a bunch of tornadoes focused in rural areas, similar to, say, November 7 last year. It just happened that they were focused on a heavily populated area.

Still, despite the violence, the people in the path definitely did things right. Those in Dixie Alley can take lessons from this.

[Texas Snowman]

Fort Worth NWS surveys continuing this afternoon.

So far, they've found "...at least EF-2 damage" in Kennedale/Arlington; EF-2 damage in Lancaster/Hutchins; and EF-3 damage in Forney/Rockwall County.

[Stephanie]

There's NO WAY in heck I'd be standing outside of my house watching that thing go right by me. The construction workers were lucky - did you notice the machine they were sitting in was rocking? They would've been done.

Lots of great video of this outbreak. I'm so happy there were no deaths and no real serious injuries or destruction.

[somethingfunny]

It's the little things that matter.

Yet, if the same cells developed 100 miles to the northwest, this would have been a non-event with a bunch of tornadoes focused in rural areas, similar to, say, November 7 last year. It just happened that they were focused on a heavily populated area.

Still, despite the violence, the people in the path definitely did things right. Those in Dixie Alley can take lessons from this.

I think that's pretty harsh toward people in Dixie Alley. There are several reasons why nobody died yesterday:

1) Video. It was on video! Live TV video from helicopters sent out by the local news stations, so everybody knew these tornadoes were real. We've had a number of false alarms and hyped events that busted recently, in fact I didn't think we had anything more than some marginally rotating hail cores until I saw the first live video come onto WFAA a few minutes past noon. Because a live video of the tornadoes was on television before they ever entered the developed portons of the Metroplex, people took the storm extremely seriously, and those who weren't near televisions or NOAA weather radios or outdoor sirens quickly learned of the situation through social media, phone calls and texts messages from friends and family. I think that this also saved many, many lives in Tuscaloosa and especially Birmingham on April 27, 2011. That brings me to the second reason...

2) Strength. They were not at the upper end of the Fujita scale. The Forney tornado (the photo I took of it is my avatar now) was an EF3, while the Royce City, Kennedale/Arlington, and Lancaster/Dallas tornadoes (including the one that tossed all those trucks in the famous video) were EF2. EF2 is nothing to sneeze at, and the damage we've seen in the aftermath shows how completely an EF2 can destroy a well-built structure - but it will usually spare the interior rooms, where a person with advance warning could go to hide in. EF4s and EF5s like we saw in too many places last year, they simply aren't as survivable.

3) Building codes. Most of the urban areas in DFW have city ordinances restricting the types of structures that can be built. Sure, there are mobile/manufactured homes, but they are the exception as opposed to the rule. Most houses around here, even in impoverished neighborhoods, are site-built.

4) Luck. I heard one story about a woman in Kennedale who knew the tornado was coming, but was immobile due to a recent knee surgery. She sat down in her recliner as the tornado tore apart her mobile home, lifting the entire trailer into the air and splitting it, tossing everything, including her, several hundred yards. She and her dog both survived, though the recliner did not survive. I heard another story of a woman huddled into a bathtub with her 3 grandchildren in Forney as the tornado destroyed their house. It picked up the 18-month-old baby and the grandmother held onto the baby by its' ankles as the tornado roared overhead. They did everything right but still would have had a tragedy if not for some extremely good fortune and grace. The wing of a nursing home that was destroyed in Arlington just happened to be empty at the time. One of the tractor trailers from the truck yard on I-20 landed nearly a mile away inside of somebody's house there in South Dallas. He was at work.

5) Timing. A lot of people were at work, or at school. This is one thing I will fault Dixie Alley on. Schools and places of business are small targets; the area covered by residential buildings is much wider around here. Schools and businesses also tend to be better constructed than your typical home or apartment building. I don't like that Alabama closes their schools on days of enhanced severe weather at all, especially when they do early dismissals. Would you rather have all your eggs in a well constructed basket, or do you want all the eggs lying on the ground exposed all over the place? Either way, the fact that children were in school, adults were at work, there were no areas of cloggged traffic on the roads because it wasn't rush hour, and everybody could see what was happening because it was daytime.... the timing was also a fortunate factor working for us yesterday.

6) Training. They do this in Dixie Alley too, but it's still a factor in explaining what happened yesterday. Once people recieved the warnings, they knew what to do. Interior rooms, bathrooms, preferably bathtubs. Mattresses and/or heavy blankets, wearing helmets if they had any. Away from windows and not driving into the things. Of course not everybody did these things, same as there are idiots in every city and every region. There's videos floating around Youtube and the news stations of people doing incredibly stupid things to get pictures and videos. Some guy stood on his rooftop as a tornado tore up houses just a street or two over. I drove around Dallas all afternoon using one hand to steer, one hand to text to my Storm2K friends for advice/analysis and to check radar on my phone, and one hand to take pictures, and I only have two hands and it was pouring down rain. You can't fix stupid. But that goes back to #4 on this list.

[TexasStooge]

I made it through the outbreak myself. That one tornado would've slammed my hometown head on if it continued in its solid NE direction rather than NE to NNE back to NE. Admittedly, I went and briefly shot a video of the rotating storm west of me because...well...rarely I ever see such a storm.

I was speechless after seeing some of the truck trailers getting tossed around live on TV (In fact, I was speechless throughout the entire ordeal). I'm thankful that there were no deaths in that outbreak.

[Texas Snowman]

More video of the Forney tornado from a storm chaser:

http://wxch.nl/HfR4AJ

[vbhoutex]

It's the little things that matter.

Yet, if the same cells developed 100 miles to the northwest, this would have been a non-event with a bunch of tornadoes focused in rural areas, similar to, say, November 7 last year. It just happened that they were focused on a heavily populated area.

Still, despite the violence, the people in the path definitely did things right. Those in Dixie Alley can take lessons from this.

I think that's pretty harsh toward people in Dixie Alley. There are several reasons why nobody died yesterday:

1) Video. It was on video! Live TV video from helicopters sent out by the local news stations, so everybody knew these tornadoes were real. We've had a number of false alarms and hyped events that busted recently, in fact I didn't think we had anything more than some marginally rotating hail cores until I saw the first live video come onto WFAA a few minutes past noon. Because a live video of the tornadoes was on television before they ever entered the developed portons of the Metroplex, people took the storm extremely seriously, and those who weren't near televisions or NOAA weather radios or outdoor sirens quickly learned of the situation through social media, phone calls and texts messages from friends and family. I think that this also saved many, many lives in Tuscaloosa and especially Birmingham on April 27, 2011. That brings me to the second reason...

2) Strength. They were not at the upper end of the Fujita scale. The Forney tornado (the photo I took of it is my avatar now) was an EF3, while the Royce City, Kennedale/Arlington, and Lancaster/Dallas tornadoes (including the one that tossed all those trucks in the famous video) were EF2. EF2 is nothing to sneeze at, and the damage we've seen in the aftermath shows how completely an EF2 can destroy a well-built structure - but it will usually spare the interior rooms, where a person with advance warning could go to hide in. EF4s and EF5s like we saw in too many places last year, they simply aren't as survivable.

3) Building codes. Most of the urban areas in DFW have city ordinances restricting the types of structures that can be built. Sure, there are mobile/manufactured homes, but they are the exception as opposed to the rule. Most houses around here, even in impoverished neighborhoods, are site-built.

4) Luck. I heard one story about a woman in Kennedale who knew the tornado was coming, but was immobile due to a recent knee surgery. She sat down in her recliner as the tornado tore apart her mobile home, lifting the entire trailer into the air and splitting it, tossing everything, including her, several hundred yards. She and her dog both survived, though the recliner did not survive. I heard another story of a woman huddled into a bathtub with her 3 grandchildren in Forney as the tornado destroyed their house. It picked up the 18-month-old baby and the grandmother held onto the baby by its' ankles as the tornado roared overhead. They did everything right but still would have had a tragedy if not for some extremely good fortune and grace. The wing of a nursing home that was destroyed in Arlington just happened to be empty at the time. One of the tractor trailers from the truck yard on I-20 landed nearly a mile away inside of somebody's house there in South Dallas. He was at work.

5) Timing. A lot of people were at work, or at school. This is one thing I will fault Dixie Alley on. Schools and places of business are small targets; the area covered by residential buildings is much wider around here. Schools and businesses also tend to be better constructed than your typical home or apartment building. I don't like that Alabama closes their schools on days of enhanced severe weather at all, especially when they do early dismissals. Would you rather have all your eggs in a well constructed basket, or do you want all the eggs lying on the ground exposed all over the place? Either way, the fact that children were in school, adults were at work, there were no areas of cloggged traffic on the roads because it wasn't rush hour, and everybody could see what was happening because it was daytime.... the timing was also a fortunate factor working for us yesterday.

6) Training. They do this in Dixie Alley too, but it's still a factor in explaining what happened yesterday. Once people recieved the warnings, they knew what to do. Interior rooms, bathrooms, preferably bathtubs. Mattresses and/or heavy blankets, wearing helmets if they had any. Away from windows and not driving into the things. Of course not everybody did these things, same as there are idiots in every city and every region. There's videos floating around Youtube and the news stations of people doing incredibly stupid things to get pictures and videos. Some guy stood on his rooftop as a tornado tore up houses just a street or two over. I drove around Dallas all afternoon using one hand to steer, one hand to text to my Storm2K friends for advice/analysis and to check radar on my phone, and one hand to take pictures, and I only have two hands and it was pouring down rain. You can't fix stupid. But that goes back to #4 on this list.

I agree fully. Good analysis. You now have something else to add to you signature.

[MGC]

The reason no one was killed was because these tornadoes were not the monster EF-4 or EF-5's that happened in Mississippi and Alabama last April. No amout of training will save you from them. Comparing the Dallas tornadoes to the "Dixie Alley" tornadoes is like comparing Hurricane Katrina or Ike to Hurricane Irene.....the people up north think they survived a hurricane......MGC

[Texas Snowman]

IMO, Somethingfunny CLEARLY noted that the Dallas tornadoes were in no way on the upper end of the Enhanced Fujita scale as a number of the April 27, 2011 tornadoes in Dixie Alley were. See point #2.

That is without question the primary reason that no one died this week.

But there is also plenty of good fortune involved too. The Lancaster tornado missed Lancaster High School by just a few hundred yards while it was packed with students. Many people emerged from homes that were shredded, some completely destroyed, and yet no one died. The tornado that threatened Greenville lifted just before it got to the town. Etc., etc., etc.

[Texas Snowman]

BTW, if anyone thinks that an EF-2 tornado or an EF-3 tornado is no big thing, try going through one. I want no part of one.

Not only do they damage/destroy homes and buildings, they still manage to kill plenty of people each year even if the EF-4 and EF-5 twisters cause most of the deaths.

Anything that can throw a 16,000-lb. empty trailer a hundred or two hundred feet up into the air has my respect.

[Ntxw]

The reason no one was killed was because these tornadoes were not the monster EF-4 or EF-5's that happened in Mississippi and Alabama last April. No amout of training will save you from them. Comparing the Dallas tornadoes to the "Dixie Alley" tornadoes is like comparing Hurricane Katrina or Ike to Hurricane Irene.....the people up north think they survived a hurricane......MGC

No doubt about the severity of the Tornadoes. I just hope Dixie alley gets the message about mobile homes. You will be hard pressed to find images or videos mobile home damage in the Dallas area storms. When it came to people in the southeast and midwest, mobile home damage galore (where most of the deaths were anyway). I understand it's an economic thing but there should be ordinances and changes for an area that experiences such violent tornadoes so often. And I will detest from the idea that no training will prevent deaths from violent tornadoes, sure your chances aren't great but if you are prepared and know what to do you increase your odds.

[Texas Snowman]

As per Texas Storm Chasers:

"The Red Cross is reporting that 349 homes were destroyed and 750 homes damaged by the April 3, 2012 Tornado Outbreak in North Texas."

[somethingfunny]

Yes, MGC and Texas Snowman, most of those factors...timing, intensity, luck... are pretty much the same factor (luck) but I just broke it down a bit more. EF-2 and EF-3 tornadoes have killed people before, under similar circumstances, in less populated areas. I'm making a contention that the live helicopter footage on TV is what gave people the visceral confirmation that no, you cannot blow this tornado warning off like the false alarm you may have been expecting. I think most people remember their training, but if they don't believe a tornado is going to hit them they'll never have the chance to use that training in time to do any good. Alot of houses were totally demolished aside from the lone interior room that people were able to get into because they heeded the warnings, which was because of the helicopter footage in my opinion. The Lancaster tornado in particular was rain-wrapped for most of its' duration.

Ntwx, Mobile homes aren't so common here in the Metroplex, but there are trailer parks scattered around here. I know of trailer parks in southeast Mesquite, Balch Springs, Rowlett, East Dallas, Lancaster... I think it was CBS11 that got an interview with the woman who survived her mobile home being demolished in Kennedale. Alot of the surrounding rural areas are speckled with mobile homes too. I actually rented a spare bedroom in a singlewide trailer for a few months when I lived just east of Sherman. I never felt safe in there, just lucky.