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Nine Tornadoes Struck North Texas In April

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Apr 30, 2008 8:45 pm US/Central

Nine Tornadoes Struck North Texas In April

50 Tornadoes Touch Down State-Wide

Reporting
Larry Mowry
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― What an April in North Texas! It seemed like every week severe weather was moving into North Texas. And that is literally the truth. We ended the month with a total of nine tornadoes touching down somewhere in North Texas.

Here are the dates and locations of those tornadoes.

April 9:

 Two tornadoes touch down in Stephens County near the city of Breckenridge.

One was an EF-0 with winds around 80-85 mph just east of the Eolian community. The other an EF-1 with winds around 110 mph. This tornado was on the ground for 7.1 miles. It did damage to the airport in Breckenridge. 

 Another tornado strikes in Palo Pinto County near the town of Oran. This tornado was rated an EF-1 tornado with winds of 85-90 mph.

April 10: 

 One tornado in Johnson County hit north of Alvarado near Happy Hill. This tornado was rated an EF-1 with winds of 90-95 mph. 

 Another tornado in Dallas County hit in Desoto. This tornado also rated an EF-1 with winds around 95 mph. 

 The third tornado hit Collin County in the city of Allen and traveled into parts of McKinney. This tornado also rated an EF-1 with winds at 90 to 95 mph.

April 23: 

 Two tornadoes touch down in Erath County.

Both were rated EF-0's. The one tornado near the intersection of County Road 120 and county road 125 had winds of 65 mph. The other tornado north of Morgan Mill had winds of 80-85 mph. 

 One tornado hits Tarrant County.

This tornado was rated an EF-2 with winds around 110-115 mph. This tornado touched down near the town of Crowley and was on the ground for a very brief amount of time, but did significant damage to five homes and minor damage to a number of other homes in the area.

You may also recall a significant hail storm that rolled through southern Denton and Collin Counties on the night of April 3. Many homes reported roof damage as hail was as large baseballs. There was also wind damage to a commercial building in the city of Denton.

This stormy pattern was a result of upper level disturbances moving right over top of the state of Texas. This is not uncommon for the month of April, but the frequency and the intensity of these disturbances was a little unusual.

For the entire state of Texas, there were 50 tornadoes during the month of April. I have listed a table showing the total number of tornadoes in the state of Texas each year over the past 17 years. You can see the state averages well over a hundred tornadoes every year. The bulk of those tornadoes come in the months of April and May.

Number of Texas Tornadoes By Year
YEAR: TORNADOES
1990: 158
1991: 192
1992: 189
1993: 117
1994: 187
1995: 232
1996: 138
1997: 191
1998: 123
1999: 179
2000: 147
2001: 137
2002: 173
2003: 155
2004: 179
2005: 105
2006: 117
2007: 216 

The year 1995 was the most active for tornadoes with a total of 232 hitting the state.

In North Texas, we have the highest number of tornadoes per year of anywhere else in the State of Texas. This is probably not surprising given the fact that we are on the southern edge of Tornado Alley.

Despite what the weather sends our way, you can count on the CBS11 Storm Team to be there for the storms and provide life saving information. Our website CBS11tv.com is also great source for weather information.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMIX, CBS Stations Group of Texas L.P. All Rights Reserved.