The National Weather Service in Fort Worth confirmed Wednesday afternoon that an EF-1 tornado hit southeastern Rockwall County early Wednesday morning during overnight severe thunderstorms.
The NWS team said in a statement "A brief tornado, likely embedded within straight-line winds impacted a few homes on Candice Circle to the east of Mclendon-Chisholm. The tornado began near Bluebonnet Drive, where a few trees were damaged."
Frances Brown’s home along Candice Circle suffered the worst of the damage to her roof and attic. She remembers hearing the strong winds just after 4:30 a.m.
“Maybe about 15 seconds ‘bang, bang, bang.’ The stuff on the back patio was flying around and hitting the house. Then it just stopped,” she said. “I sat straight up in bed and said: Oh my God, we’re getting hit by a tornado.”
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The tornado left roof and water damage and a badly damaged playhouse in the backyard.
Next door, Chasity Swehla and her family were fast asleep when wind and debris set off their security alarm at 4:44 a.m.
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“The irony of this whole situation is we do have a tornado shelter in the garage that was hit,” she said with a laugh.
Both homes are in the McLendon-Chisholm area of Rockwall County which is not covered by outdoor tornado sirens.
Residents rely on the county’s weather notification alert system. However, while a tornado watch was issued for the area at the time of the twister, no tornado warnings were issued indicating an imminent threat exited.
“There are a couple of factors that could’ve gone into why there was no warning on this storm in particular,” said NWS Meteorologist Jennifer Dunn.
Quick-forming tornadoes sometimes occur between radar scans.
“Sometimes it can happen when we are checking other parts of the storm on radar also,” she said. “Sometimes they happen so fast it’s hard to pick up on that type of damage quickly within the radar.”
The NWS will look back at the storm and make any changes necessary.
“It is something that we will look at before we hopefully get into the next event and see what we could’ve picked up on, what we may have missed, and what we could do better next time to get that warning out to people.”
Despite the scare and scattered pieces of their homes left to mend, both homeowners are grateful no one was hurt.
“I’m thankful we didn’t lose some of our precious and cherished memories we have inside our house,” said Brown. “Others, I know recently, have not been that lucky.”
Five homes suffered damage, according to the NWS.
The damage came after an upper-level storm system and associated cold front brought heavy rain, wind gusts, and lightning to the area early Wednesday morning, kicking off Tornado Watches, Wind Advisories and Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for parts of North Texas as the storms pushed east.
At about 3:30 a.m., winds reaching as high as 50 mph were detected near Mansfield and moving into Cedar Hill, NBC 5 Meteorologist Grant Johnston said. The winds increased to as high as 60 mph as they continued eastward into southern Dallas County.
At about 2 a.m., Johnston said winds reaching 55 mph were detected in the Aledo-Benbrook area. The storm was producing lightning in other parts of Tarrant County, which was a general indication of the storm's strengthening.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help Brown recover from the storm. To make a donation, click here.
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