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Channel 8 is whipping our arse with the Troy Dungan send off as he retires (kinda) at the age of 70.
Over the last couple of days, his "Greatest Weather Moments" have been appearing in various publications and the radio. His number one moment is when the "Fort Worth tornado" hit downtown. Troy, buddy, I was watching you that night. You had no clue.
Hey, I like the guy. He's hard not to like. Although I think all local weatherman are spares (I could do that - remember my prediction two weeks ago about the rains being over? Spot on, bruther), he had no idea what was going on the night the storm hit. Moments before downtown was beat apart, Troy was tracking a storm in northern Tarrant County on radar. Yep. it was a heck of a storm, moving from I-35/Western Center Boulevard due east over Haltom City, North Richland Hills and into Colleyville.
Then the tornado hit. It was an awkward moment on TV because someone told him about it out loud near the stage. He was confused but said something "big" was happening over downtown Fort Worth. (Yeah, he gave no warning of the tornado but I don't blame him for that - a tornado touching down isn't something you can predict.) But, as I watched the screen, downtown Fort Worth was now the hot spot. With the radar behind him, Troy pointed to what he thought was the tornado. But he was completely confused. He kept pointing time and time again to a storm north of downtown over Saginaw. It wasn't even close to downtown. If the video existed, you would not believe what you saw. The man looked like he had never seen a map of Tarrant County before.
I've talked to one guy who saw the same thing I did, and his reaction was exactly the same. You'll never see a video of it. It's buried in the vault of WFAA.
I don't know why this has stuck with all these years. My first and only wife (yep, I'll admit to only one) used to cringe whenever she noticed I was looking at at a Troy Dungan Billboard or Troy Dungan Commercial. She knew my rant was coming. "You have got to let that go!" she told me.
With his retirement, maybe I will.
