Dallas NBC station apologizes for delaying tornado warning during Cowboys' game vs. Eagles

A tornado with wind estimates as high as 140 mph hit north Dallas on Sunday night, inflicting damage to homes, businesses and enough schools to cancel Monday classes for thousands of students.

Dallas’ local NBC affiliate, KXAS-TV, waited six minutes before interrupting the Cowboys' home game against the Eagles on "Sunday Night Football contest" for weather updates.

“We made a mistake by not immediately interrupting the football game with a tornado warning,” the company said in a Monday evening statement. “When it comes to dealing with severe weather, we know that seconds matter. We should have broken into football programming sooner. We apologize and want you to know that we’re doing everything in our power to make sure this does not happen again.”

The station said it streamed weather coverage on its website the entire time, and alerted football viewers to the livestream during the game. The game drew an average audience of 22 million viewers—the best Week 7 "Sunday Night Football" ranking in five years, per NBC.

The Cowboys (4-3) beat the Eagles (3-4) 37-10 to take first place in the NFC East.

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Follow Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.