by Tornadoes and a powerful storm system lashed parts of Texas and Louisiana on Thursday, leaving tens of thousands without power.
Tornado warnings issued for the Dallas-Fort Worth area ended late in the afternoon, but strong winds and hail continued, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 10 million residents across North Texas, southern Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas were under a tornado watch Thursday night, according to FOX Weather. Further south in Texas, around San Antonio and Austin, hurricane-force wind gusts were reported.
BURST OF SEVERE WEATHER CONTINUES IN SOUTH AS TORNADOES, HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS IDENTIFIED
Tornado in Shreveport, Louisiana. (Jamey Bradshaw via NWS Shreveport)
A tornado touched down about 100 miles east of Dallas near the small town of Fuqua and was moving northeast toward Texarkana at 55 mph, the weather service said.
Nearly 350,000 people in Texas were without power as of Thursday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.
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The Dallas mayor said maps from Oncor Electricity Delivery Company showed 110,000 customers in Dallas County alone were without power, as well as 42,000 in Collin County. More than 4,700 in northwest Louisiana were without power.
He noted that Oncor was not a city of Dallas agency and serves the entire region.
Several school districts, including Dallas and Fort Worth, canceled after-school activities and events because of the forecast.
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Power outages, meanwhile, forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights to and from Dallas. FlightAware.com reports that Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport have recorded more than 400 cancellations combined.
Further east, in Louisiana, a tornado touched down near Louisiana State University in Shreveport. The National Weather Service tweeted footage of an earlier tornado near Bert Koons. The agency noted that storms into the evening “will continue to be capable of producing short-duration tornadoes.”
“Be ready to take cover before storms and when tornado warnings are issued,” the agency tweeted.
“This is the same system that hit California and is now in New Mexico and will cross Texas and then Arkansas,” said Rich Thompson, chief forecaster for the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
He said strong winds and large hail pose the biggest threat.
Snow dusts Saguaro cactus in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Ariz., on March 2, 2023. (Rick Wiley/Arizona Daily Star via AP)
Forecasters say the storm produced a “once-in-a-generation” snow in California and Oregon with up to 7 feet accumulating in spots.
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The snowfall, however, is credited with helping to reduce and in some areas eliminate drought conditions in California.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
