NWS Lubbock, TX, Early June 2012 Rains

Early June Brings Locally Heavy Rains

Seven day radar estimated (and bias corrected) precipitation totals valid ending at 8 pm on 10 June 2012 (Sunday evening to Sunday evening from the 3rd through the 10th of June). Click on the image for a larger view.

The first part of June brought rounds of showers and thunderstorms to the region. Most locations saw at least some precipitation, with parts of the central and eastern South Plains into the Rolling Plains recording several inches of rainfall.

Activity to start June was generally isolated to scattered. However, more widespread thunderstorms affected the entire area on Monday, June 4th. Some of the storms were severe and brought large hail and damaging winds. Specifically, golf ball size hail was observed 5 miles west of Floydada, while a peak wind gust to 61 mph was measured by the Texas Tech Mesonet (WTM) located 6 miles south-southwest of Wolfforth. In addition, a brief tornado was documented by storm chasers just west of Crosbyton at 8:28 pm. A complete list of the preliminary storm reports for June 4th can be FOUND HERE.

Another round of heavy rain producing thunderstorms developed early Wednesday morning (6 June) and trained along a line from north-northwest to south-southeast across parts of the South Plains. These storms did produce a little severe weather, including quarter size hail 14 miles west of Plainview just after 8 am. However, the heavy rain was the main story. While generally welcome, the heavy rain did produce some flooding problems as it came down very fast. The WTM site 5 miles northeast of Abernathy recorded 4.42 inches on the day, most of which fell in a few hours. The WTM site near White River Lake recorded 3.74 inches for the day, with a total for the week in excess of 5 inches. All in all, most of the region recorded very welcome rains over the first part of June.