The 2000 Fort Worth Tornado

On the morning of March 28, 2000, it seemed apparent that a severe weather outbreak would affect Oklahoma and Texas. The Storm Prediction Center posted a moderate risk outlook for northern Texas and southern Oklahoma. A cold front over Kansas was expected to drop into the Red River Valley between Texas and Oklahoma that afternoon. The airmass south of the front was warm, moist and moderately unstable. A strong upper disturbance was expected to rotate out of the Southwest U.S. by the afternoon, setting the stage for severe weather. Tornado watches were posted by 3 p.m. Thunderstorms were beginning to develop over West Texas along the western edge of the moisture axis.

By 6 o’clock, a large complex of thunderstorms was approaching the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. They looked menacing. The conditions were right for tornadoes to develop. A potential worst case scenario was developing. At the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, the forecaster assigned the responsibility of issuing warning for the thunderstorm was Mike Foster. As he stared at his Doppler radar display, the data was ambiguous. He needed ground truth. He needed spotters in the field. He needed chasers that were providing minute by minute observation of what was going on in the clouds and below the base of the thunderstorm. But the spotters and chasers were not there that afternoon. Some of them had been drawn south, some to the north. Many chasers avoid metropolitan areas like Dallas/Fort Woirth because of the congested road networks that can leave them flat footed and stuck in traffic as storms develop.

Foster had to decide if the supercell thunderstorm west of Fort Worth capable of producing a tornado. Was the storm accompanied by a lowering called a wall cloud? If so, was the wall cloud rotating? Without the information that he needed, Foster went on his own intuition to issue a tornado warning for Tarrant County.

Fifteen minutes later, the storm produced an F3 tornado that struck the Fort Worth, TX metropolitan area directly just after the evening rush hour. The 35 story Bank One building suffered heavy damage, with thousands of its windows being blown out. Glass from several downtown buildings showered down on the streets below. Two people were killed by this tornado, including a heroic man who helped several people to shelter before he was killed by a falling wall. One man was reportedly killed by baseball sized hail. Another F3 tornado struck the Arlington and Grand Prairie areas. This twister moved along I-20, crossing over the interstate several times. $450 million in damage was tallied after the tornadoes.

Foster would win the Special Prediction Award from the American Meteorological Society.

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