It's hard to believe it's already been 2 years since the devastating Dallas/Richardson tornado. Amazingly enough, nobody died during this EF-3 tornado with wind up to 140mph.
Investigators say it was on the ground for 32 minutes and tore up a swath 15 miles long and over half mile wide. This costly tornado did $2.2 billion of damage, making it the costliest tornado in Texas history.
The last strong tornado to hit north Dallas was back in May of 1976. I was 10 years old and remember it well. I remember seeing that tornado out the back window of my parents station wagon as we were taking shelter and the Wolco Automotive parking garage at North Town Mall (Forest Lane @ Webb Chapel). To this day, I still wonder why my dad took us out of the safety of our home and into this structure. The last thing I remember before we left the house was hearing Harold Taft on the NBC 5 talking about the possible tornado on the ground in north Dallas. Ironically, the tornado back in 1976 took almost the identical path of the 2019 tornado, but it was not on the ground as long. It was THIS tornado in 1976 that peaked my interest in weather.
After the tornado, I had my dad buy me a weather radio at Radio Shack and that baby has been within arms reach since that day. I'd carry it on my bicycle, on camping trips, take it to school on severe weather days, and it always sat next to my bed on my nightstand while I was sleeping.
I set a goal when I was 10 years old that I would do weather in Dallas/Fort Worth some day. Well, 43 years later, I was on the air on KRLD for 6 hours straight and didn't sleep for 36 hours after. I even went out to a neighborhood in north Dallas to help with clean up efforts for several hours the following morning.
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