National Weather Service Forecast Office

A summary of weather events across North Texas

The year was marked by killer tornadoes in March and May, a summer with drought and excessive heat, and two ice storms in December.

Winter 1999-2000

The winter 1999-2000 was exceptionally mild, the third year in a row. February was the third warmest at DFW Airport, and the 6th warmest at Waco. The coldest temperatures (in the low 20s) came with a glaze event January 25-28, with widespread freezing rain, sleet and snow over north Texas. Travel was disrupted at airports and on highways, and four fatalities were blamed on the icy roads. Between 3-5 inches of snow accumulated in some northeast counties. Precipitation was seasonable, with 2-3 inches falling in the western half of the area, and 3-6 in the eastern half.

Spring 2000

The spring was generally mild, but unsettled, with four major severe weather events, and several minor ones from the end of February through the first part of June. Chronologically, the most significant severe weather occurred:

February 25-26 - Mostly minor severe weather event over the central and eastern counties. Golf ball size hail was reported at Maypearl (Ellis county), Blum (Hill county), and Greenville (Hunt county), while one person was injured when a mobile home was destroyed near Lake Lavon (Collin county).
March 2 - Widespread but mostly minor wind and hail event over the north central counties. Golf ball size hail was reported in Wise county (Aurora and Rhome), Denton county (near Justin and Lewisville), Tarrant county (Keller), Collin county (Plano and Prosper), and Hunt county (Merit). Minor wind damage was reported around Cooper (Delta county), Greenville (Hunt county), near Gatesville (Coryell county), and near Ennis (Ellis county).
March 10 - Isolated severe weather event over the central parts of north Texas. Baseball hail was reported at Fort Hood (Bell county), and golf ball hail was reported at Maypearl (Ellis county). Wind gusts measured at 74 MPH at DFW Airport did minor damage to the Delta Hangar, and to several building in near by Irving, where three people were injured.
March 25-26 - Major severe weather event over scattered central and eastern sections of north Texas. The worst damage was at Hillsboro, where the combination of wind and hail did one million dollars in damage to property and crops. Large hail (golf ball to baseball size) was also reported in Young (Olney), Parker (near Brock), Hood (Tolar, Granbury), Hill (Blum, Covington, Itasca, Hillsboro), Ellis (Palmer), Navarro (Corsicana), Anderson (Neches), Bell (Salado), Lamar (Paris, Givens, Pattonville), and Hopkins (Birthright) counties.
March 28-29 - This major severe weather event included two F3 tornadoes in Tarrant county, doing approximately $450 million in damage. One tornado struck the at Fort Worth, the other in Arlington. Two people were killed in Fort Worth as a direct result of the tornado, while another died after being hit by baseball size hail. Two people drowned in flash flooding. Another tornado damaged rural property in eastern Navarro and western Henderson counties. Golf ball to baseball size hail was reported in Montague (Montague, Saint Jo), Parker (Aledo), Tarrant (west and northwest sections of Fort Worth, Saginaw, Lake Worth), Lampasas (Lampasas), Henderson (Trinidad, Malakoff), Bosque (Kopperl), Grayson (Sherman), and Hopkins (Sulphur Springs) counties.
April 2, 7, 11 - Minor severe weather events, with golf ball size hail reported at Salado (Bell county) on the 2nd, and Belton (Bell county) and Canton (Van Zandt county) on the 7th.
April 15 - Golf to baseball size hail fell in Young (Graham, Newcastle) and Jack (Bryson), Palo Pinto (Palo Pinto), Parker (Whitt), Tarrant (White Settlement), and Dallas (Irving) counties.
April 23 - A tornado did extensive damage to barns, trees, and fences from Tira to Nelta in Hopkins county. Two people were injured from flying glass.
April 30 - This severe weather event included the Olney (Young county) tornado. This tornado (F3) began in adjacent Throckmorton county, moved into the northwest parts of Young county, and affected Olney. Three homes and two mobile homes were destroyed, and other damage was reported to a nursing home, barns, trees, and power line on the outskirts of Olney. Golf ball size hail was reported at Newcastle (Young county) and near Graford (Palo Pinto county). The event finished with locally heavy
rain reported in parts of Young, Jack, Stephens, Eastland, Wise, Parker, Denton, Tarrant, and Johnson counties.
May 3-4 - Golf ball to baseball size hail fell in Tarrant (Keller, north Fort Worth, Euless), Hood (Tolar, Granbury), Somervell (Glen Rose), Ellis (Waxahachie), Dallas (Cedar Hill), and Rockwall (Rockwall) counties. Locally heavy rain caused flash flooding in parts of Van Zandt, Henderson, Limestone, and Freestone counties.
May 12 - This severe weather event included the Lake Whitney tornado (F3), which killed two people on the west side of the Lake in Bosque county. Golf ball to baseball size hail was reported elsewhere in Bosque (Clifton), Lampasas (Lometa), and Van Zandt (Wills Point) counties.
May 18 - Golf ball size hail and larger was reported in Palo Pinto (Mineral Wells) and Parker (Springtown) counties.
May 26 - Golf ball size hail and larger was reported in Young (Profitt, Jean, Markley) county.
May 27 - Golf ball to baseball size hail was reported in Young (Markley), Jack (Antelope), Stephens (Ivan), Eastland (Eastland), and Fannin (Bonham) counties. Brief tornadoes (F0) did mostly minor damage in Fannin (Leonard) and Hunt (Wolfe City, near Lake Tawakoni) counties. Other wind damage was reported in Delta (Cooper, Klondike) and Hopkins (Sulphur Springs) county.

Summer 2000

Heavy rain fell the first part of June. The most widespread event occurred June 3-4, when 6-12 inches of rain fell from Mineral Wells to Waco, and from Stephenville to Waxahachie to Sulphur Springs. Extensive flooding occurred, the worst at White Settlement in Tarrant county, where two million dollars in damage was realized. Damaging flooding was also reported in Hamilton (Hamilton), Palo Pinto (Mineral Wells), Hood (Granbury), Johnson (Joshua), Tarrant (Mansfield, Fort Worth), Ellis (Red Oak, Palmer), and Dallas (Desoto, Lancaster). The event had its beneficial side, however, putting much needed water in reservoirs like Lake Whitney, Benbrook, Lake Arlington, Cedar Creek, and Richland Chambers. Additional heavy rain events occurred June 10-11 (2-4 inches of rain over the north central areas), June 14-15 (band of 3-5 inch rain from Hamilton to Sulphur Springs), June 17-18 (2-4 inches of rain over parts of the north central areas), and June 21 (2-5 inches of rain from Dallas to Sulphur Springs). (June Heavy Rainfall Map)

The rest of the summer was hot and dry. The Dallas/Fort Worth airport went 84 straight days (July 1-September 23) without measurable rain, the longest rainless streak on record for the area. At DFW, that translated into July being one of two with no rain (the other being 1993) and August being one of seven with no measurable rain (the others being 1902, 1913, 1929, 1943, 1980, and 1999). At Waco, only five hundredths of an inch of rain fell in August, making it the eighth driest. (July & August Rainfall Map) The dry weather led to excessive heat, with 18 heat related fatalities in Dallas county. There were 45 100-degree days at DFW, and 26 at Waco. At DFW, it was the third warmest August (after 1952 and 1951). The warmest temperatures of the summer came Labor day weekend (September 1-4) with readings topping out between 110-112 degrees at many north Texas stations. The drought resulted in water restrictions and high fire danger, which continued into the early fall months. Isolated thunderstorms produced downburst wind in Young (Olney) and Denton (Krum) counties July 13, and September 2 and 12 over several eastern north Texas counties.

Fall 2000

The heat wave broke in mid September, and decidedly cooler weather occurred September 24-30 and October 6-11. A wetter pattern began in mid October, and continued through November. Between 3-5 inches of rain were widespread the latter half of October, and November was the second wettest ever at DFW, and the third wettest at Waco.. Between 5-10 inches fell over the western and central sections for the month, and 10-15 inches fell in the east. In spite of all the rain, flooding was minimal, and reservoirs registered little response.

December continued the cool trend from November, the first two well-below normal months in a row in seven years (since the fall of 1993). At DFW, it was the 4th coolest November, while at Waco it was
the 8th coolest. December tied for 3rd coolest at DFW, and 6th coolest at Waco. It was one of the coolest combined November and December time periods since 1898. Ice storms took down trees and power lines in the northeast sections of north Texas December 12-13, and over the Red River counties December 26-27. The latter event was particularly devastating from Sherman to Paris to Texarkana. Glaze elsewhere hampered air and road travel, particularly over the western sections of north Texas. Heavy rain (2-4 inches) over the central and eastern sections, however, produced much needed runoff into area reservoirs. The year finished with a dusting (� to 2 inches, generally) of sleet and snow over the northern and northeast sections of north Texas on New Year�s Eve. (Monthly Rainfall Maps)

Page Last Updated: 02/16/07