June 11, 2011 Severe Weather Event

Severe weather has been a stranger to the Panhandles so far this spring.  In fact, before June 11, this year marked the sixth latest date without a report of a tornado since 1950.  However, that changed as a diffuse retreating warm front, a series of weak upper-level disturbances, and a moist surface upslope flow conspired to ignite thunderstorms across the Oklahoma Panhandle and the northeastern Texas Panhandle during the late afternoon hours of June 11.  A favorable combination of instability and wind shear allowed severe supercell thunderstorms to develop quickly.  These supercells were prolific hail producers, even dropping softball size hail 5 miles southwest of Beaver and 8 miles southwest of Darrouzett.  The tornado drought ended as well.  A storm survey crew from the National Weather Service in Amarillo confirmed that four tornadoes occurred in the area, including an EF-1 tornado near Tyrone, OK, an EF-0 just north of Boyd, OK, an EF-0 tornado near Darrouzett, TX, and another EF-0 tornado near Follett, TX.  It was determined that very strong straight line winds up to 95 mph were responsible for overturning irrigation pivots and snapping a power pole near Forgan, OK.  We would like to thank everyone that provided invaluable severe weather reports during this event! 

June 11 storm reports

Radar loop 4:00-10:00 p.m.

Satellite Imagery

Visible satellite imagery showing upslope surface winds helping to trigger convection. Infrared satellite imagery indicates cloud tops as cold as -66 C in Beaver County. Water vapor imagery showing two separate upper-level disturbances helping to trigger convection.

Radar Imagery

0.5 deg KDDC base reflectivity and storm relative motion image at 7:12 p.m. 0.5 deg KAMA base reflectivity and storm relative motion image at 7:34 p.m.     0.5 deg KAMA base reflectivity and storm relative motion image at 7:39 p.m. 0.5 deg base reflectivity image at 9:09 p.m.  Softball size hail was reported 9 miles south of Darrouzett at 9:06 p.m.      Cross section of 9:09 p.m. radar image.

Storm Images

Golfball hail 8 miles east of Perryton. Courtesy of Jason Boggs. Supercell near Beaver, OK. Courtesy of Steve Miller. Supercell near Beaver, OK. Courtesy of Steve Miller.       Tornado 1.5 miles west of Follett, TX. Courtesy of Doug Speheger. Tornado 1.5 miles west of Follett, TX. Courtesy of Doug Speheger. Supercell 8 miles south of Booker, TX. Courtesy of Jason Boggs.           Wall cloud near Booker, TX. Courtesy of Michael Ellis. Wall cloud north of Lipscomb. Courtesy of Erik Fox. Supercell in Texas County, OK. Courtesy of Michael Howard.