A Rude Wake Up Call: Overnight storms

We had some major storms blast their through the Dallas/Fort Worth area overnight. Just prior to going to bed, I checked out NOAA's Storm Prediction Center's website to get the latest information. I saw that the immediate D/FW area was under a Tornado Watch until 6:00am. In all the time of being a weather watcher (nerd), I've never experienced a tornado watch to encompass the overnight hours such as this one. Not only did I see that, but I also saw that the region could sustain large hail and very strong winds, upwards of 80+ mph! Needless to say I brought down my patio garden plants off the ledge onto the floor and kept an ear to weather.

Many different areas in north and south Dallas experienced severe storms right around the 3:00 to 4:00am hour and then beyond. What came through our specific neighborhood arrived around 3:40-3:45 or so. What initially go my attention was hearing the hum of the bedroom fan turn off and then back on several times. I heard a few rumbles of thunder with an occasional knock of what I thought was hail on the windows and walls, but when I got to my feet and peeked outside the window, I saw the trees blowing around in a wind that I've never witnessed before: it was a howling, whistling type of wind. There was a eerie strangeness to it. Nevertheless, after blurting out a curse in my overnight stupor, I riled everyone out of bed and into the bathroom.

As soon as everyone got settled in the bathroom, I ran to the laptop to check the latest weather reports and radar. After a few tense moments, I was able to get a internet connection going and got to this radar image and took a picture of it shortly after the storm passed with my camera phone, hence the picture quality. But if you look closely, you'll see that in the radar image in the southern edges of Denton and Collin counties, there's a definite "kink" in the bow echo blowing through the area. In these type of storms, namely squall lines, the northern edge of a bow echo, may usually cause a quick spin-up or two of a tornado. Note the time in the upper right-hand corner of the image.

Who knows what the storm assessors will say with the damage connected to this part of the storm, but the areas around my part of town report the same type of damage: significant roof damage, blown down fences with uprooted and blown down trees, similar to those I've posted below from our apartment complex.