June 12th, 2021: Widespread Severe Thunderstorm Wind Damage

Overview

A weak upper level disturbance moved along the northern side of an upper level ridge centered across the Desert Southwest generating thunderstorms over the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. These storms slowly moved east into the Panhandles and encountered an environment with weak to moderate wind shear but extreme instability and high moisture which allowed these storms to thrive and increase in severity and organization as they tracked east. The main impact from the storms was damaging winds as they crossed out of New Mexico and Colorado into the Panhandles, but some hail was also reported. The most significant damage occurred with a storm that strongly bowed as it moved southeast across Cimarron County Oklahoma. This storm produced wind speeds likely around 90 mph in some locations based on damage and were measured at just shy of 80 mph near Boise City, OK at a mesonet site. The storm produced widespread wind damage from Kenton to Boise city and southeast to Griggs, OK. Widespread damage to trees and powerlines occurred and isolated significant roof damage occurred as well, including the Boise City High School auditorium, which lost part of it's roof completely. Fifty-five power poles were reported damaged across Cimarron County with around 1600 customers without power during the peak outage after the storms. Power was out until well into the afternoon hours on Sunday for some locations. This storm continued to grow upscale and eventually merged across the northwestern Texas Panhandle with another broken line of storms that had crossed the New Mexico border near I-40, also producing severe wind gusts as they entered the Texas Panhandle. This storm complex tracked east-southeast and continued to produce severe wind gusts and heavy rainfall, especially across the northern and central Texas Panhandle. The storm complex finally weakened early Sunday morning as instability decreased.

• Photos & Video
• Radar
• Storm Reports
• Environment

Photos & Video

Header

Roof damage to Boise City High School auditorium (Boise City News)	Roof damage to Boise City High School auditorium (Boise City News)	Shed damage in Boise City (Boise City News)	Damage to the State Highway Department near Boise City (Boise City)

Damage to a trailer in Boise City (Boise City News)	Damage to a trailer in Boise City (Boise City News)	Large branch down in Boise City (Boise City News)	Tree down in Boise City (Boise City News)

Tree down in Boise City (Boise City News)	Tree branches down in Boise City (Boise City News)	Tree damage in Griggs (Lea Lavielle)	Damage to trees and a garage in Griggs (Lea Lavielle)

Tree damage in Felt (Lea Lavielle)	Tree damage in Felt (Lea Lavielle)

---

Radar

Header

Radar loop with warnings from the event. Radar data and warnings from NWS; animation from Iowa Environmental Mesonet

---

Storm Reports

Map of hail, severe wind, and wind damage reports received on the night of June 12th, 2021

 

Report Time (CDT)	County	Location	State	Event Type	Magnitude	Source	Lat	Long	Remark
2021/06/12 21:30	CIMARRON	KENTON	OK	TSTM WND DMG		EMERGENCY MNGR	36.9	-102.97	SOME TREE LIMBS SNAPPED AND METAL ROOF PEELED BACK SLIGHTLY ON LOCAL BUSINESS.
2021/06/12 22:30	CIMARRON	3 SSE BOISE CITY	OK	TSTM WND GST	78	MESONET	36.69	-102.5	MESONET STATION BOISE CITY (BOIS) MEASURED SEVERE WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 65 MPH FOR 25 MINUTES (1030 CDT TO 1055 CDT). THE PEAK WIND GUST MEASURED WAS 78 MPH. LARGE TREE LIMBS WERE REPORTED DOWN THROUGHOUT TOWN AND SOME TREES WERE UPROOTED COMPLETELY. SEVERAL HOMES REPORTED SIGNIFICANT ROOF DAMAGE AND A PORTION OF THE ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF THE HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM. DOWNED POWERLINES AND WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES WERE REPORTED THROUGHOUT TOWN.
2021/06/12 22:34	CIMARRON	BOISE CITY	OK	HAIL	1	TRAINED SPOTTER	36.73	-102.51
2021/06/12 22:35	CIMARRON	3 SSE BOISE CITY	OK	TSTM WND GST	75	MESONET	36.69	-102.5	MESONET STATION BOIS BOISE CITY REPORT OF COTTONWOOD TREES BEING RIPPED APART IN BOISE CITY.
2021/06/12 22:40	CIMARRON	3 SSE BOISE CITY	OK	TSTM WND GST	78	MESONET	36.69	-102.5	MESONET STATION BOIS BOISE CITY POWER IS OUT IN BOISE CITY.
2021/06/12 23:22	SHERMAN	4 WNW STRATFORD	TX	TSTM WND GST	67	MESONET	36.36	-102.14
2021/06/12 23:30	CIMARRON	GRIGGS	OK	TSTM WND DMG		EMERGENCY MNGR	36.6	-102.12	THREE LIMBS SNAPPED AND SHED WAS SHIFTED OFF ITS FOUNDATION AND RELOCATED.
2021/06/12 23:35	HARTLEY	4 SSW DALHART	TX	TSTM WND GST	63	ASOS	36.02	-102.55	ASOS STATION KDHT DALHART (ASOS).
2021/06/12 23:43	HARTLEY	4 SSW DALHART	TX	TSTM WND GST	62	ASOS	36.02	-102.55	ASOS STATION KDHT DALHART (ASOS).
2021/06/12 23:48	HARTLEY	4 SSW DALHART	TX	TSTM WND GST	62	ASOS	36.02	-102.55	ASOS STATION KDHT DALHART (ASOS).
2021/06/12 23:57	HARTLEY	4 SSW DALHART	TX	TSTM WND GST	61	ASOS	36.02	-102.55	ASOS STATION KDHT DALHART (ASOS).
2021/06/13 00:23	MOORE	1 WSW CACTUS	TX	TSTM WND GST	75	TRAINED SPOTTER	36.04	-102.02	MEASURED THUNDERSTORM WIND GUST WITH A HANDHELD WIND METER.
2021/06/13 00:28	MOORE	CACTUS	TX	TSTM WND DMG		PUBLIC	36.05	-102.01	3 INCH TREE LIMBS BLOWN DOWN AND POWER POLES BLOWN OVER IN CACTUS.
2021/06/13 00:30	DALLAM	DALHART	TX	FLASH FLOOD		CO-OP OBSERVER	36.06	-102.51	WATER OVER CURB AND A FEW INCHES COVERING ALL LANES OF HWY 87.
2021/06/13 00:35	MOORE	3 WSW DUMAS	TX	TSTM WND GST	61	AWOS	35.85	-102.02	AWOS STATION KDUX DUMAS (AWOS).
2021/06/13 00:50	DEAF SMITH	11 WNW BOOTLEG	TX	TSTM WND GST	61	MESONET	34.89	-102.99	MESONET STATION 69 BOOTLEG 11WNW.
2021/06/13 01:08	HUTCHINSON	3 N BORGER	TX	TSTM WND GST	67	ASOS	35.7	-101.4	ASOS STATION KBGD BORGER (ASOS).
2021/06/13 01:13	POTTER	9 SE MASTERSON	TX	TSTM WND DMG		PUBLIC	35.53	-101.87	POWER POLES BLOWN DOWN.
2021/06/13 01:16	POTTER	11 SSW FRITCH	TX	TSTM WND GST	74	STORM CHASER	35.49	-101.64
2021/06/13 01:17	POTTER	11 SSW FRITCH	TX	TSTM WND GST	61	TRAINED SPOTTER	35.5	-101.67	MEASURED USING HANDHELD WIND METER.
2021/06/13 01:29	POTTER	4 N AMARILLO	TX	TSTM WND DMG		PUBLIC	35.26	-101.83	SHINGLES BLOWN OFF HOUSES.
2021/06/13 02:13	RANDALL	5 S AMARILLO	TX	TSTM WND DMG		TRAINED SPOTTER	35.13	-101.82	APPROXIMATELY 6 INCH DIAMETER TREE DOWN NEAR ZITA ALONG LOOP 335.
2021/06/13 02:13	RANDALL	5 S AMARILLO	TX	TSTM WND DMG		TRAINED SPOTTER	35.13	-101.82	CORRECTS PREVIOUS TSTM WND DMG REPORT FROM 5 S AMARILLO. APPROXIMATELY 6 INCH DIAMETER TREE DOWN NEAR ZITA ALONG LOOP 335.

 

---

Environment

Overall, this was a weakly forced event, with a large ridge of high pressure in place to our west (250mb and 500mb charts, top left and top right respectively). However, there was a large amount of moisture present lower in the atmosphere (700mb and 850mb charts, bottom left and bottom right, respectively).

250mb (top left), 500mb (top right), 700mb (bottom left), and 850mb (bottom right) charts at 7pm June 12th, 2021

The high amount of low level moisture led to a very large amount of instability, as demonstrated by MLCAPE values (left) near 4000 J/kg in the northwestern Panhandles. Additionally, the environment was supportive of strong downdrafts, as evidenced by DCAPE greater than 1500 J/kg (center). Thus, despite weak overall wind shear (right), thunderstorms were able to develop and generate severe wind gusts.

Mixed layer convective available potential energy at 9pm June 12th, 2021	Downdraft CAPE at 9pm June 12th, 2021	0-6km bulk shear at 9pm June 12th, 2021

 

---