Here is a photo of a probable tornado that struck near Downtown Dallas and then moved across Highland Park towards Lake Highlands. Tornado sirens went off, lots of trees down as a result. The photo is taken from West Dallas Macarthur and I-30

Yeah, it was getting pretty hairy here where I work.

Not a tornado.

Thanks for playing.  

ETA:  Video provided by OP!

Explain your know it all-ness or take your nice parting gifts???   Wouldn't know if it's a tornado or not without inspecting the potential touchdown area.  Have you done that?  


 

I was monitoring the storm as it happened.

There were also no tornadic vortex signatures on the radar.  

Here's the storm report from a trained spotter via the NWS for the Highland Park area:

000
NWUS54 KFWD 082048
LSRFWD

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX
348 PM CDT THU MAY 08 2014

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
           ..REMARKS..

0345 PM     TSTM WND DMG     HIGHLAND PARK           32.82N  96.77W
05/08/2014                   DALLAS             TX   TRAINED SPOTTER

           TREES DOWN IN HIGHLAND PARK

$$

Wind damage, but no tornadic activity reported.

Appreciate your explanation.  I'll still wait for the final verdict.  NWS should let us know tomorrow whether it was a tornado or a funnel tomorrow.  Sorry I don't just blanketly take your word for it.  Could be the whole thanks for playing with the passive aggressive smiley face.    Stay safe and thanks for playing.  

It's all good

I spent many years as a NWS storm spotter and was with RACES for a long time.

Cool dont take me too seriously.  I am really smiling and yuking it up with you.  My delivery sucks. I am the guy that can't tell a joke. Very dry delivery.  Ignore me if I am an idiot.  explanation sent hopefully it sheds light on where I'm coming from.  I think weather spotting cool.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvELHgQd3o

Looks like a vortex to my untrained eye. At 18 seconds through about 22 seconds you can see debris in the air.

That's a pretty good video.  You can make out some debris (looks like roofing shingles).

It'll be interesting if they classify it as an EF-0, but it meets the definition of a "tornado"

I'm like you and one of the ultimate tornado skeptics, I roll my eyes everytime some redneck claims tornado when their trampoline and plastic lawn furniture gets blown down the street. But this one today is most likely a tornado.

I work in One Victory and saw the funnel but without a camera, I would not dare claim to see it. I figured someone would upload some shaky footage and there you have it.

......still. If I saw it - I would be outa there......

Everything I've heard in storm spotter class is that the funnel has to touch the ground to be considered a "tornado". And that doesn't mean you'll see the vapor vortex touch the ground, the vortex may be there and not be visible. Usually the sign that the vortex has touched the ground is the presence of debris, and I can't see that in that particular photo. Doesn't mean it didn't happen 30 seconds before or after the photo, I just can't see it in that particular photo.

I was driving back into Dallas up I45 and the sky looked pretty freaky, but I never saw anything. By the time I pulled out my HT - they were spotting a rotating wall cloud over Mesquite that never materialized into anything. I was kicking myself because I've got a brand new VHF radio and antenna at home, still in the box, that I've been meaning to mount in the truck specifically for this kind of thing.  

Be sure you send a link of that video to the national weather service.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/StormReport/SubmitReport.php?site=fwd

As of right now, NWS is not reporting any tornadoes yesterday in the metroplex.

Looks like we got an EF-nothing!  Zaminsky wins!  That video really looked like a nader though.