Mid-May brought an active stretch of weather to West Texas with Tuesday (16 May 2017) providing the most widespread and intense storms. Thunderstorms erupted along a dryline on Tuesday May 16th as a large and upper-level storm system approached from the west. The first storms developed across the northeast South Plains and quickly moved up into the eastern Texas Panhandle. This activity showed signs of rotation but no tornadoes were reported in our area. One of these storms barely missed the town of Memphis to the west. Additional thunderstorms developed across the southern South Plains and Rolling Plains, bringing hail and strong winds from around Post to near Childress. The activity gradually diminished and moved east by midnight.
 |
|
|
Wall Cloud on a severe thunderstorm to the west of Memphis at 4:50 pm CDT. Photo courtesy Matthew Brothers
|
|
The satellite images below show the thunderstorm activity at (top) 6 pm, and (bottom) 8 pm. At 6 pm, the early storm development had shifted east into the eastern Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma, while new development was just beginning farther south and west along the dryline. The 8 pm image shows the height of the thunderstorm activity across the Rolling Plains Tuesday evening. The GOES-16 imagery below is experimental and non-operational.
Some of the storms did further intensify after moving out of NWS Lubbock's area, particularly across the eastern Texas Panhandle into western Oklahoma. Two separate storms became tornadic across the eastern Texas Panhandle and continued to produce tornadoes into western Oklahoma. This included a strong tornado that did considerable damage and killed one person in and around Elk City, Oklahoma.
To the west of the severe thunderstorms a cold front and upper level storm system did generate a few light showers and isolated thunderstorms across the northwest South Plains and southwest Texas Panhandle Tuesday evening, but little to no rain. However, the cold front did bring in gusty westerly winds and a line of blowing dust, as seen in the below image.
When the cold front eventually encountered better moisture levels a severe squall line erupted across the southern Rolling Plains into the Permian Basin late Tuesday evening. This squall line raced eastward producing pockets of hail and strong wind gusts before eventually weakening as it moved into North Texas during the late night hours.
May 16th wasn't the only active weather day in mid-May. Two days (Thursday, 18 May 2017) later the same general weather pattern brought another round of severe weather to the region, though this time the dryline and thunderstorms were a little further east. Most of the activity was confined from Kansas and Oklahoma southward to the Big Country. However a couple of severe thunderstorms did develop over the eastern Rolling Plains during the mid-afternoon before quickly moving east. The most intense storm produced 1 inch diameter hail in Guthrie, though likely much larger hail to the northeast of town.
 |
 |
|
Visual and radar view of a severe storm moving out of King County on Thursday afternoon, 18 May 2017. The picture is looking east from south Lubbock. The radar animation is valid from 2:08 pm to 3:18 pm.
|
|
Thursday thunderstorm activity was pretty isolated and short-lived in the Rolling Plains, but 4 days early (Sunday, 14 May 2017) more widespread and slow-moving thunderstorm complex affected portions of the South Plains into the Rolling Plains and southeast Texas Panhandle. On Sunday moisture, instability and wind shear was not as high as the days following it, so in general storms weren't as intense. Still, one storm did manage to strengthen enough to drop large hail in Ralls (as seen below). A few of the storms were also able to generate winds in excess of 57 mph, partly thanks to the relatively dry air that was still in place over the region. Lastly, because of the slow motion of the storms, locally heavy rain fell in spots.
 |
 |
|
(left) Regional radar animation valid from 6:58 pm to 8:08 pm on Sunday, 14 May 2017. (right) Large hail that fell in Ralls Sunday evening. The picture is courtesy of DAnn Lindley Reynolds and KCBD. Additional radar animation for this active evening can be viewed at: 5:08 pm to 6:18 pm and 8:28 pm to 9:38 pm on 14 May 2017
|
|
The below image shows the distribution of the rainfall over the course of a week, ending Friday morning (19 May 2017). The bulk of the rain on the Caprock fell during the 14th, while a majority of the precipitation over the eastern and southern Rolling Plains was from May 16th and 18th. The biggest rainfall winners were over much of Crosby, Floyd and King Counties, with adjacent areas also seeing meaningful rain.
Outside of a small area north and northeast of Lubbock, rainfall was fairly limited and light on the Caprock. Officially the Lubbock Airport picked up 0.02" over the course of the week, all on the 14th. The Childress Airport fared a little better, recording 0.23", most of which fell on the 14th.
 |
|
|
West Texas Mesonet 6-day rain totals ending at 8 am on Friday, 19 May 2017.
|
Below are the preliminary local storm reports collected from the WFO Lubbock for May 14th, 16th and 18th, 2017:
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LUBBOCK TX
1105 PM CDT SUN MAY 14 2017
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0600 PM HAIL RALLS 33.68N 101.38W
05/14/2017 E1.50 INCH CROSBY TX PUBLIC
0750 PM TSTM WND GST 6 SSW ANTON 33.73N 102.19W
05/14/2017 M58 MPH HOCKLEY TX MESONET
0925 PM TSTM WND GST 6 NW WHITE RIVER LAKE 33.53N 101.17W
05/14/2017 M59 MPH CROSBY TX MESONET
SUSTAINED 44 MPH. MEASURED BY THE WEST TEXAS MESONET.
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on YouTube
LUB RSS Feed
