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worth metroplex which would sound familiar to a national audience here. but these areas, there is a saying in texas. it takes you 45 minutes to get to your mailbox. these are wide counties. a wide area, if you will, that we're talking about here. mr. mayor, you've not seen any damage so far in your county. >> no, we have not. and we've had all of our crews have been out going around the city and they have not spotted any. >> thank you so much. the mayor of joshua county again in north texas. carl, if you're still there. you hear the mayor of that county saying that there were reports of suspected, at least, one or two or three, i believe, was his count of tornadoes, unconfirmed. but a lot of volatile activity. they've seen extremely warm weather in this area over the last few days. >> yeah, it has been very warm indeed. that's a part of what is driving these storms. there is no shortage of low level warmth and humidity. that's what you need to get the big updrafts. the tremendous thunderstorms that then begin to rotate when
storm. but the damage appeared to be restricted to root damage. i didn't see any walls torn out or anything like that, but i didn't go very deep. >> so that's good news. so more like ef-0, ef-1 damage, probably, from this, not a really destructive tornado, but probably a lot of that debris you were seeing was shingles flying through the air. >> right, shingles, insulation, you know, the plastic that covers insulation sometimes. a lot of that flying around. >> we're looking at our velocity display right now. still a good bunch of greens and reds together. it's centered over chisolm right now in rockwall county. i think we still have a tornado there. do you have a vantage point where you can see a storm on the ground, a funnel, at this point? >> no, i didn't, but i did see a large funnel develop.
when he spoke to us a few moments ago, one of the additional aggravations and dangers associated with this particular storm series is that the rate at which the overall storm is moving across the ground is below average, and as a result, the tornado, when it does touch down, is staying there longer, and to that end we've asked weather channel meteorologist carl parker to rejoin us. give us a sense of how slow this overall series of storms is moving, carl, whether that is, in fact, still the case, and just how much more damage is possible when you get a slow-moving set like this? >> well, that certainly has been a factor today. oftentimes when we have tornado outbreaks, you'll have a very strong upper level wind, and so your parent storm, the storm that's producing the tornado, will travel in some cases at 60 or 70 miles an hour. that was the case back on march 2nd, that was the case during the april 27th tornado outbreak last year, so they're quick hit
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they've been running into that cooler surface air made so by the cooler rain, so it does bring down the threat. it's not nothing, but it does bring down the threat a little bit. >> so the warm air is effectively fuel for the fire. thank you, carl. i want to turn our attention to one of the communities, burleson, texas. joining us on the phone is the town's mayor, ken shedder. the storms have already hit this region just south of ft. worth. mr. mayor, what's the damage assessment? >> well, we are fortunate, and our city in burleson, most of the damage here is from lightning strikes. we had a few trees on fire, a downed power line, an electrical box fire, but no personal injuries and most of our work really involved deploying resources to communities just outside our city helping manage the situation there. >> yeah, and that was my follow-up question. what is your capacity having had the benefit up to this point of
t ters. so oftentimes when you have those upper level winds, that is when you get the high-end extremely violent tornadoes. i don't think we've seen those truly high-end tornadoes here. this seems to be consistent with ef-1 to ef-2 damage, so the low to moderate damage where you see structural damage, roofs being damaged or in some cases torn away. certainly it is very scary but not the worst of tornadoes. but as you say, because of those slower upper level winds, the parent storm is not moving as quickly, and so it lasts for a longer time. now, as far as the threat going forward, there is now dryer air just off to the west of dallas and ft. worth. the front is getting ready to move in. so once this last group of storms comes through dallas and ft. worth, the dry air begins to move in, and then that severe threat is going to be eliminated. but we still have some storms to get through, there are still
flipped over. the movement on these storms was not very fast. they were moving to the north, north/northeast at 25 miles an hour. while this may not have been the most intense tornado, because of that slower movement, the winds would ten to be around for a little bit longer of a time of you see it looks like the top of the semi has been rimmed off altogether. >> it is peel like a can. we hear the phrases often. that roofs are peeled off. like cans. you see it for yourself. these folks coming out to look at the damage. hang on, carl. i have sherry jeffries, a public information officer for the dallas police department. thank you for joining us. with so much going on, what is the situation where you are? >> right now, we have confirmed that a tornado has hit the ground north of i-20 between lancaster and bonneville road. >> what else can you tell me about the damage reports? >> we're not getting any damage reports in right now. >> okay.
to see that wedge shape there. that's because the tornado was being obscured by hazy sky and also, by rain. but as the helicopter moved around, and the storm became a little more front lit, we got a better look at what was going on. we did see at one point, a tremendous am of debris being thrown into the air. that's consistent with what we've seen on the ground. it came through a highly populated area on the south side of dallas. including right around mesquite there. excuse me. not mesquite but around the i-20 and 45 corridor. and we also got reports of damage. these have been damaging tornadoes. >> it's ongoing. just getting in sporadic information from obviously, our team and this is one of these rare occasions. my nephew just tweeted me.
this activity we started watching, carl, about a half-hour ago, is still ongoing in north texas. >> that's right. there is a tornado warning that continues for the east side of dallas. that coming up through dallas, between dallas and mesquite. now north and east of 45. another tornado warning in the arlington area. the movement on these storms is north or north/northeast. about 25 miles an hour. moments ago we looked at some of the damage and saw some roofs that have been severely stripped or torn off. what you're talking about is ef-1 to ef-2 damage. that is between the low end and the moderate damage there. and that would be consistent with the level of wind that we have seen today in the environment. we don't have an incredibly strong area of environmental wind but certainly we do have enough wind to support the development of tornadoes, with all that low level warmth. there you're at the pictures from moments ago. you notice how difficult it is
told to take shelter now at the airport. hopefully we can get somebody from the airport. that is where the american airlines hub. that airport is near arlington. for poichb reference, the dallas cowboys stadium is located there. this is a short drive, 15 maybe less minutes from the dallas-ft. worth airport. to give you perspective on all of this, this is a great portion of north texas right now under a tornado watch. we're naming many counties that you perhaps have never heard of before. all of these counties are in north texas. known as the dallas-ft. worth metroplex. commonly referred to as such with several tornadoes on the ground. so far we've not heard of any fatalities but we have seen video come in. a great amount of damage to homes, to businesses, as well.