Storm Report for Temple, Bell County, Texas
for Thursday, March 16, 2000. All times CST
Central Texas experienced another round of severe weather Thursday
afternoon but most of the action was south of the local area.
At 2:45 p.m., the SPC issued Severe Thunderstorm Watch #96 for Bell and
surrounding counties effective until 9 p.m. The watch was for the area
along and 75 miles east and west of a line from 40 miles southeast of Hondo
Texas to 60 miles north, northeast of Temple Texas.
Around 3:00 p.m. a thunderstorm cell formed in Burnet County (next county
SW of Bell) and a severe thunderstorm warning was soon issued for Burnet
County. This cell was moving NE toward Bell County. At 4:05 p.m, the NWS in
Fort Worth issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Bell County effective
until 4:45 p.m. The severe thunderstorm was 17 miles west of Salado
(southern Bell County) moving east at 25 mph.
I left work at 4:30 p.m. and headed to the Bell County Expo Center on the
south side of Belton, about 12 miles north of Salado, to observe the storm.
When I arrived at the Expo Center, it was obvious that the storm would pass
well south of my location.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m, the Bell County EOC alerted the Salado and
Stillhouse Hollow VFD that a tornado had been spotted SW of the city of
Georgetown. A small cell split from the severe thunderstorm and passed over
my location around 4:50 p.m. This cell was not severe with only brief heavy
rain. The most notable thing about this storm was the intense lightning, of
which a bolt struck very close to my location. The storm then passed on to
the east.
The brunt of this storm hit to our south with several reports of tornadoes
in the Austin area. Austin television station KEYE showed home video of two
funnel clouds that occurred NW of that city. One of the funnel clouds was
a long thin rope tornado and the other was a small tornado of swirling
debris. KEYE reported damage to about two dozen homes in the Mason Creek
subdivision near the city of Leander.
As the first round of thunderstorms moved off to the east, another line was
building about 60 miles to the west. At 7:40 p.m, the SPC issued Severe
Thunderstorm Watch #99 for Central and Eastern Texas. This watch replaced
Watch #96 that was issued during the afternoon and included an area 80
statue miles east and west of a line from 15 miles south southwest of
Victoria Texas to 60 miles north of College Station Texas. This put Bell
County of western edge of the watch box. The line of thunderstorms moved
through the Temple area around 9:30 p.m. but were well below severe levels.
A cold front moved in behind the first line of storms dropping the
temperature from 75 degrees at 4:30 p.m. to 43 degrees at 9:45 p.m.
Northwest winds gusting to 30 mph dropped wind chills into the upper teens.
Total rain at my station for the two storms was 0.68"
Ronnie
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