tornadoes in the dallas area ?

Question

Trying to find out if tornadoes are a commom occurence in the dallas/ft worth area(including the suburbs)?

the reason we are asking, is e are looking inot moving to the dallas area, probably the suburbs

Answer 1

I have lived in the Dallas suburbs (north) for 17 years. I have never seen a tornado live in person. Just hear of them from time to time in other suburbs of Dallas or Fort Worth. I only hear of them every 2 or 3 years, and they usually don't do much damage except for the occasional one maybe every 5 years or so. They do however demolish trailers and trailer parks. We do have our constant springtime severe weather that keeps us on our toes with numerous watches and warnings. The tv stations here are really good about keeping us up on where the storms are, when they detect funnel clouds, when there are tornadoes on the ground, and amazingly report what town a tornado is in at a precise time, and then tell which towns a particular tornado is headed to and at what times it will arrive down to the minute!

Sure, Dallas is in an area of the US referred to as "Tornado Alley," but I hear of more tornadoes, and way worse tornadoes in such states as Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi.

You can search the internet for 'tornado frequency' and 'which states have most tornadoes' and 'tornado records' 'deadliest tornadoes' etc.

It has been my experience that the worry of tornadoes here pales in comparison to the damn Texas heat! Tornadoes are rare, but you can always count on the heat on a daily basis during the summer months and sometimes even later. I am a mail carrier and I wear shorts sometimes in Jan. and Feb.!

Answer 2

I have lived in Dallas for about 3 years once and now we have moved to Dallas since last year. In all my time here I have not experienced any tornadoes. Take a look at the following map. The western part of the state does fall in Windy Alley. Cities like Amarillo or Wichita Falls have much larger chances of experiencing a wind event like that. Dallas is in the far easter edge of the windy alley. Thus the chances of a tornado are not substantial. Choose a city as north and east as possible and you should be fine. Colleyville was hit by a tornado on Feb 11, 2009 (that was with 90MPH winds ... which makes it a weak to moderate tornado on Fujitsu scale... though it did cause roof damage and such ... did not result in any fatalities or injuries. You have to go way back to hear about any other significant hits.

Answer 3

I lived in Ft. Worth most of my life and have only seen 1 tornado and it did not touch down on the ground. However, there has been many newscasts over the years that I have watched but I dont remember seeing any that did a lot of damage.

Answer 4

They're not common around here. I've lived in north, east and central parts of Dallas for a few years. I've seen plenty of hail, lightning and high wind, but I've never been through a tornado.

But in the springtime, you can count on tornado watches and warnings. And sometimes, heavy rains will bring fast flooding.

Back in 2000, a tornado hit downtown Fort Worth and southern Arlington. It killed 4 people and did a lot of property damage.

For more info, go to wikipedia, enter "Dallas, Texas" and click on "climate".

Answer 5

they are more common in the subs for some reason. I've lived in North Dallas for almost 19 years and have never seen one touch down. The closest was 1/4mile off the ground then went back up!

Answer 6

I lived in Dallas for two years and there was a tornado warning almost every other day but never once was there a tornado! We used to laugh about it.
I also dated a girl named Dallas who did have a tornado between her legs but thar's another story.

Answer 7

I live 6 miles south of the DFW metroplex and no tornadoes are not a common occurrence. Although they do happen every now and then, they aren't devastating ones. I was born and raised here and I've only ever seen two in my entire life. Both were small ones that did little damage.

Answer 8

They're more common here than in, say, California, but not as common as, say Kansas.

If you're looking at weather concerns when moving here, I'd look more at the temperatures and whether that's an issue for you, as opposed to tornados.

Answer 9

Yes, the Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the most dangerous areas for tornadoes. See from the following maps:
http://www.tornadochaser.net/images/frequency.gif
http://www.tornadochaser.net/tornadoalley.jpg
http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/tornadoUSmap.gif

Answer 10

Umm ya