Dallas Tornado Threatens Collin County Muckraker

The tornado that touched down in Dallas last evening was about 2 blocks from where I work.

We were outside loading up our cars about 6 pm at the shop, which is 2 blocks from Mockingbird Lane and just off the Trinity levee. It had just finished raining — a real tropical downpour with heavy winds that made the rain appear to be falling sideways. As the warning sirens began to blare, we noticed 2 dark low hanging clouds spinning low in the sky.

As we looked on, both low hanging clouds quickly disintegrated and became assimilated into the thunderclouds. A minute later, the sun came out. Thinking the danger had passed, we continued our work. A few minutes later, we noticed a weird long, thin, vertical, almost transparent cloud silhouetted in front of the sun and reaching all the way to the ground.

We watched as that cloud began moving quickly from south to north, as it arrived in front of us, about 2 blocks away we heard a machine-like noise, like a wood chipper. Then debris rose from the ground as a black cloud at the base of the long, thin tornado. It was only on the ground for half a minute, trashing a quarter mile path along Mockingbird Lane. (more…)