FORECAST: Tracking severe weather in Dallas on Thursday

Six. I wanna get you over to the weather now starting with a lightning strike at an intersection near UT Southwester. Thanks to Dan Shall for sending us this video from Dallas at Maple Avenue in Medical District Drive. Just one of many images viewers are sending us on another busy weather day. Yeah, the water has led to some flooding on the roads. Look at that several lanes are covered in water there at 35. The Market Center in Dallas. This place is notorious for ponding and flooding when we get a lot of rain too quickly. We've seen driving around that water all afternoon and we've seen significant flooding in at least one neighborhood in Tarrant County. This video is from a residential area of Crowley just south of Fort Worth and meteorologist Jesse Hala is here to answer questions. My neighbor texted me up from the airport. She wanted to know if her flight was going to get out of here this afternoon. We're getting a break now. So most of North Texas is kind of in this lull except for the southern portions, but a third round of thunderstorms for just today alone is on the way later tonight. I that's, I think she speaks for everybody in North Texas at least. Uh, we really do need a break. This has been a horrendous week, uh, here in North Texas. So we have a severe thunderstorm watch in effect for areas along and south of I 20. Now, Dallas and Tarrant County, no part of the metroplex is included in this, that again is until nine o'clock and the severe threats winding down and the flash flood warnings that were in effect for the metroplex expired. So no part of the metroplex under flash flood warnings, but there are lots of flash flood warnings uh from Ellis County down into Hill County, Navarro County. All the severe weather has pressed south of North Texas, still some heavy rain in Henderson County, uh from, you know, from Tyler down through Athens and Mejia still clinging on to some heavy rain. So North Texas is in a break at this moment. But if you look off to the west and this is what we were, we were gonna be monitoring this afternoon and evening is do these thunderstorms take shape abruptly from Midland up to Lubbock and Amarillo and they are, that will become our next round of thunderstorms that we get here tonight into the overnight. Some of those could be on the stronger side with winds up to 60. But overall the severe threat will be mitigated to just about 60 mile an hour winds and maybe some nickel sized hail, maybe up to quarters, but certainly some heavy rain. So here's a look at the timing of this next round again this evening. If you're watching the Mavs game or you're going out, things really look. Ok. We are in a bit of a break by 11 o'clock. Seymour down through Abilene thunderstorms by 2 to 3 o'clock in the morning. It's in the Dallas Fort Worth area. So we expect heavy rain, thunder, lightning, maybe some gusty winds at 3 a.m. Then the heaviest rain moves into East Texas by seven. So again, the overnight all the way through early tomorrow morning, a bit on the rainy side, some severe weather is possible. A level two slight risk for most of North Texas. Again, the main threats, damaging winds up to 60 up to quarter size hail, flash flooding has been a problem today. We've seen all the water standing on roads. Let's get over to Stacia Wilson for an update on how the roads are looking now. All right, thanks Jesse. Starting with what I 35 E at Market Center looks like now just a couple of moments ago we showed you uh all the flooding that was happening there. I 35 northbound, at least three lanes were blocked as a result of that high water. I did see some crews come out and I work on it and unfortunately, you know, traffic is kind of heavy but it definitely, that water has died down and it looks a lot safer. All right. I also just wanna go ahead and show you what's happening as far as any type of slowdown we're seeing and it does look like a typical Friday, but earlier this afternoon that weather was just wreaking havoc across our roadways. And by the way, it's Thursday, not Friday. Let's go ahead and add our radar. You do have still some rain that's affecting uh areas east of Mesquite. I can show you an area that we're watching that definitely still has slow moving traffic. Uh 80 Pascual, if you're heading toward 40 slow there, it's still pretty wet. A number of your roads are still, we just as a result of this water not really having anywhere to go since the round is already over saturated. I 35 northbound at Whitlock that's open. It was closed for much of the day as a result of an 18 wheeler accident. And then also just showing you one more area. We're seeing a problem. I know this isn't a great shot but 45 northbound, this is an innocent crisp that just cleared. And 635 the accident we had there cleared as well. All right, back to you. Well, we just checked the outage map and right now, more than 100 and 50,000 will still don't have power encore says they have restored power to about half a million customers. So far. Take a look at the latest numbers to get a sense of where the problem spots are. Encore officials tell us they brought in additional personnel and crews are working 16 hour shifts to turn the lights back on Betty. Marry just spoke with several people in Dallas who are still in the dark right now. I don't have power either, so I definitely feel their pain. Uh, what are they telling you? Well, Chris, we've been driving all across southern Dallas this afternoon and down wires, heavy rain, falling trees all making it difficult for residents, especially those still without power and with more storms on the way and crews not able to work in those dangerous conditions, it only makes the wait for help much longer. It's hard to see where the trees begin and the wires end. It's a hazardous over here. Somebody need to get on over here in South Dallas. Queen City neighborhood. You'll find power on one side. I've been truly blessed and fortunate to not have any power outages and darkness on the other. It won't come, cut the tree down. God. Sharon Murphy and her neighbor's power have been out since Tuesday, losing my food, losing my, my, my, my health is getting bad. It's, it's, it's why I'm, I'm, I'm falling and I'm busy paralyzing trees down poles barely hanging on and residents passed out. Shanette Savage says the last time she saw any cruise here was Tuesday, you know, they don't care. So she's putting her own cones out to keep people from downed wires. But we're going to do what we have to do to survive and keep going until things get right. Some sharing generators and others opening up their doors. We're going to always watch out and look out for each other. Encore tells w FAA they can't give an exact day for restoration with storms continuing. I can see it. It hurts. Yeah, but God got us. It's gonna be good. They need to come out and do something in South Dallas. I'm Britney. Mon Cree. The Valley View Volunteer Fire Department confirms their storm sirens were not working properly when a deadly ef three tornado tore through the city. Saturday night crews had to send the warnings out on social media. Instead we're told a wiring issue is what caused the sirens to malfunction. The city says it's been fixed outdoor warning sirens are meant to alert people outside to seek shelter. We started asking what's the protocol to make sure a potentially life saving tool is ready. As Richard Solomon found out. It depends on where you live. He's in for tonight with more Richard. Well, Cynthia, what you're looking at over my shoulder here, this is actually one of 12 sirens here in the city of 40. I'm told they all are solar powered and they all went off Tuesday as that storm moved through this area. But this afternoon, I called several cities around the DFW area, asking several questions, but one in particular are your systems ready for whatever weather is coming our way? What you hear is the sound of the powerful tornado that ripped through a gas station in Valley View last Saturday. What you don't hear is the sound of caution and that sound and technology are things. Deputy fire chief John Hol, that's one of our 12 outdoor warning sirens that's located in the city of Forney keeps an eye on daily in the city of, for a lot of people ask, how long does it take? I like it's a matter of seconds. He's also the emergency management operator see down towards the bottom. They've got solar panels. The other 11 sirens are spread across town. It's a fairly new system installed three years ago, which can be heard for seven miles. He can look at every single siren on his computer and know if one is down or not working properly. And if one does malfunction maintenance comes within 24 hours. Anytime the national weather service issues, a polygram, a tornado warning it touches anywhere of that green circle. It's automatically gonna set our sirens off. I reached out to several cities across DFW and I was giving information for Dallas Fort Worth and Plano Plano's system was updated in 2000. The director of emergency management says they have to manually signal the sirens and there's an audible test. Every first win day, weather permitting and a silent every day. Fort Worth also tests their systems every Wednesday. They were replaced in 2003. I'm told the previous system was in place for several decades and the city is working to move to a fully automatic system very soon. But Dallas has the most sirens with 173 the city consistently checks on the systems to make sure they're working properly and while 40 is growing, so will the need for more sirens in the area? We're able to just come in through budget with the city and add a siren into that area. Holcomb says the sirens did go off Tuesday morning during the storm. He checks them weekly because the sound of warning could save lives in this weather in for, I'm Richard Solomon.