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Tornadic storm, damaging winds and widespread rain |
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| Large, dusty tornado north of Morton on Monday evening (23 May 2022). The picture is courtesy of Kholby Martin. | |||
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May 23rd and 24th brought several rounds of thunderstorms, complete with tornadoes, damaging winds, hail and widespread rain, to the South Plains region of West Texas. The activity was fueled by returning Gulf of Mexico moisture following a strong May front that provided a relatively cool and dry weekend leading up to the stormy stretch. Moderate to strong instability developed across the western South Plains and eastern New Mexico Monday afternoon and evening (May 23rd) as the improving low-level moisture and temperatures warming into the 80s developed beneath an approaching upper level storm system. |
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In response to the approaching disturbance and improving moisture, scattered thunderstorms quickly developed near the Texas/New Mexico state line late Monday afternoon. Relatively strong wind shear (changing wind speed and direction with height) caused several of the thunderstorms to rotate as they moved into the western South Plains and western Texas Panhandle Monday evening. |
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| Narrow funnel (possible tornado) northwest of Morton Tuesday evening (23 May 2022). The image is courtesy of Russ Smith. | |||
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The most intense activity of the day was a cyclonically rotating storm that organized over southern Bailey County, then slowed and tracked east and southeastward through parts of Cochran and Hockley Counties Monday evening. This storm produced its first observed tornado, a brief one, northwest of Morton just before 7 pm. The storm further strengthened, and went on to produce a large tornado north of Morton shortly after 7 pm. The below radar imagery shows what the storm looked like around the time it was producing a large and dusty tornado. |
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| Lubbock WSR-88D 0.5 degree reflectivity (left) and velocity (right) data valid at 7:08 pm on 23 May 2022. | |||
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The slow-moving storm went on to produce at least three additional tornadoes as it crept into Hockley County through the mid-late evening hours. Thankfully, the tornadoes occurred over rural areas, which limited the overall impacts. However, spotty damage did occur, including two oil derricks that were toppled by the intense tornadic winds. This damage, along with snapped power poles and flipped center pivots, earned a peak damage rating of EF-2. A few of the tornadoes inflicted no known damage and were rated EFU. A total of at least 8 tornadoes were documented with this storm from shortly before 7 pm to around 9 pm. See the Public Information Statement (PNS) at the bottom of this page for details from the damage survey conducted the day after the tornadoes. |
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| Barn (left) and oil derrick (right) damaged by the tornadic storm that passed north of Morton Monday evening (23 May 2022). The left picture is courtesy of Ronda Turnbowz and the right picture is courtesy of Shelly@ttushell. | |||
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As the storm plodded eastward, it gradually weakened, but still generated damaging winds, hail and torrential rainfall. In addition, it created an ominous site as it approached (see the image below). |
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| Supercell (rotating) thunderstorm near Levelland Monday evening (23 May 2022). The picture is courtesy of Quincy Vagell. | |||
| The thunderstorms eventually evolved into a larger complex that brought widespread rain to most of the South Plains, Rolling Plains and southern Texas Panhandle from Monday evening through Tuesday morning. The heaviest rain over this stretch was associated with the slow-moving tornadic storm Monday evening, and was concentrated over Bailey County, where 3 to as much as 7 inches of rain fell. | |||
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| Lubbock WSR-88D radar animation valid from 2:52 am to 6:20 am on 24 May 2022. | |||
| The intense and excessive rainfall flooded out many roadways in Bailey County, especially south of Muleshoe. The heaviest rain was concentrated over the southeast portion of Bailey County, from near the Muleshoe Wildlife Refuge to Enoch then eastward to immediately northwest of Pep. | |||
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| Flooded out truck south of Muleshoe Tuesday morning (24 May 2022). The picture is courtesy of Ricky Carrillo. | |||
| After a brief reprieve around midday Tuesday (May 24th), another batch of thunderstorms originating from the higher terrain of eastern New Mexico swept through the region. This complex of thunderstorms moved much more quickly than the previous evening's storms, though additional slow-moving storms also formed along a weak frontal zone over the central South Plains late Tuesday afternoon. | |||
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| The thunderstorms that formed above the quasi-stationary frontal zone were able to concentrate the spin along the front, which resulted in the development of several landspout type tornadoes. These tornadoes are generally short-lived and weak, but quite visible and photogenic (as seen below). A one point as many as three landspouts were observed at the same time near the community of Meadow. Thankfully, the landspouts moved very little, dissipated relatively quickly and inflicted little to no known damage. However, the slow-moving line of thunderstorms dropped torrential rainfall, as much as 2-3+ inches, over southern Lubbock into central Crosby Counties, creating flash flooding. | |||
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| A pair of landspout tornadoes near Meadow Tuesday evening (24 May 2022). The image is courtesy of Wood Franklin. | |||
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In contrast to the limited and short-lived landspouts, the bulging cluster of storms generated widespread wind gusts of 50 to 70+ mph across the central and southern South Plains Tuesday evening. A peak wind gust of 78 mph was measured by the West Texas Mesonet site located 8 miles west-southwest of Sundown. The intense winds blew the roof off a house and tore a basketball backboard out of its concrete pad in Meadow. The wind also knocked out power in a number of locations. |
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| Maximum wind gusts measured by the West Texas Mesonet on 24 May 2022. | |||
| Though excessive in spots, the two days of active weather brought rainfall to the entire region, and significant rain to much of the area. The heavier rain, from 1 to 3+ inches, fell on much of the South Plains, Rolling Plains and southern Texas Panhandle. However, locations near and south of a Plains to Brownfield to Post to Old Glory line generally recorded 1/2 to 1 inch of rain. Officially, the Lubbock Airport recorded 2.48 inches during this event, boosting the monthly total to 3.58 inches (1.59 inches above the monthly average through the 24th), and the year-to-date total to 3.96 inches (1.76 below the YTD average of 5.72 inches through May 24th). The rain made a welcome dent into the ongoing drought, but it will take additional widespread and significant rains to completely eradicate the drought. | |||
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| 48-hour rain totals, as measured by the National Weather Service and West Texas Mesonet, ending at 9 am on 25 May 2022. The background is the radar-estimated and bias-corrected rain totals for the event. Exact rain totals from the West Texas Mesonet can be VIEWED HERE. A regional view of estimated rainfall amounts for this event can be FOUND HERE. | |||
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You can view damage survey images and preliminary tornado tracks at: https://apps.dat.noaa.gov/StormDamage/DamageViewer/ Be patient, as the above page can be slow to load. Also, be sure to include 5/23/2022 within the data window (Begin and End Date) located on the upper right-hand side of the page in order to view the data for this event. The preliminary storm reports collected over this active late-May two-day stretch can be found below. |
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Public Information Statement...CORRECTED National Weather Service Lubbock TX 240 PM CDT Thu May 26 2022 ...NWS Damage Survey for 05/23/2022 Tornado Event... .Overview... Late afternoon on Monday, May 23, a cluster of thunderstorms moving northeast out of SE New Mexico into the NW South Plains and interacted with an outflow boundary moving northwest out of the Permian Basin. This caused a storm on the southern flank of the cluster to begin to rotate and become supercellular and take a more easterly, then southeasterly track. As the storm intensified it also became cyclic in behavior, and its forward speed varied from about 5 mph to about 20 mph. The storm produced its first brief tornado across northern Cochran County shortly before 7 pm Monday afternoon, with the final observed tornado ending around 9 pm Monday evening just northwest of the town of Levelland in north-central Hockley County. The National Weather Service at Lubbock conducted a ground survey on Tuesday, May 24. Many roads across the affected area were closed due to flooding, which limited access to where the tornadoes tracked. In addition, radar data was provided by the Texas Tech Atmospheric Science Group and the NSSL TORUS Field Campaign from one of their mobile Ka-band radars, and was useful for determining the location and timing of several of the tornadoes. .Northern Cochran County... Rating: EF-Unknown Estimated Peak Wind: N/A Path Length /statute/: 1 mile Path Width /maximum/: N/A Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 06:50 PM CDT Start Location: 4 SE Maple / Cochran County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.8136 / -102.8465 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 06:55 PM CDT End Location: 4 SE Maple / Cochran County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.8143 / -102.8292 Survey Summary: Brief, needle-like tornado that became rain-wrapped observed by storms chasers. No damage was observed or reported. .Near Enochs... Rating: EF-2 Estimated Peak Wind: 120 mph Path Length /statute/: 3.1 miles Path Width /maximum/: 1400.0 yards Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 07:03 PM CDT Start Location: 4 SSW Enochs / Cochran County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.8093 / -102.786 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 07:18 PM CDT End Location: 3 SSW Enochs / Bailey County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.8342 / -102.7815 Survey Summary: Instantaneous width and center fix estimated from TTU-Ka1 radar data. Due to the lack of damage indicators, the width of the tornado may have been wider than the surveyed extent. Extensive photo and video evidence of a wide, dusty, wedge tornado with numerous sub-vortices present at times. .Bailey-Cochran County Line... Rating: EF-Unknown Estimated Peak Wind: N/A Path Length /statute/: 1.1 miles Path Width /maximum/: N/A Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 07:13 PM CDT Start Location: 4 SSE Enochs / Cochran County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.8213 / -102.7178 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 07:22 PM CDT End Location: 3 SE Enochs / Bailey County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.835 / -102.7157 Survey Summary: While the larger tornado south of Enochs was occluding, a new circulation developed to the east, and a brief, small tornado was reported by numerous chasers, including NWS spotters. No damage observed or reported. TTU-Ka1 also sampled this tornado. .Northeast Cochran County... Rating: EF-Unknown Estimated Peak Wind: N/A Path Length /statute/: 1.6 miles Path Width /maximum/: N/A Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 07:40 PM CDT Start Location: 6 W Pep / Cochran County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.7937 / -102.6694 End Date: 05/25/2022 End Time: 07:45 PM CDT End Location: 5 WSW Pep / Cochran County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.788 / -102.6433 Survey Summary: Short-lived, small tornado. Track estimated by TTU-Ka radar data. .Northwest Hockley County... Rating: EF-0 Estimated Peak Wind: 85 mph Path Length /statute/: 1.93 miles Path Width /maximum/: N/A Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 08:06 PM CDT Start Location: 3 SW Pep / Hockley County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.7802 / -102.5942 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 08:11 PM CDT End Location: 2 S Pep / Hockley County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.7821 / -102.5608 Survey Summary: Storm chaser footage of a brief, small tornado in an open field. Wooden power poles blown down at the intersection of FM 597 and FM 303, 2 miles south of Pep. NWS survey crew was unable to reach the damage area due to flooded roads. .Pettit_1... Rating: EF-Unknown Estimated Peak Wind: N/A Path Length /statute/: 1.0 miles Path Width /maximum/: N/A Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 08:28 PM CDT Start Location: 5 NNE Whiteface / Hockley County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.6627 / -102.5785 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 08:32 PM CDT End Location: 4 NE Whiteface / Hockley County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.6542 / -102.5644 Survey Summary: Short-lived, small tornado. Track estimated by TTU-Ka radar data. .Pettit_2... Rating: EF-Unknown Estimated Peak Wind: N/A Path Length /statute/: 0.5 miles Path Width /maximum/: N/A Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 08:37 PM CDT Start Location: 5 NE Whiteface / Hockley County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.664 / -102.5559 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 08:39 PM CDT End Location: 5 NE Whiteface / Hockley County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.6636 / -102.5482 Survey Summary: Short-lived, small tornado. Track estimated by TTU-Ka radar data. .Pettit_Coble... Rating: EF-2 Estimated Peak Wind: 120 mph Path Length /statute/: 8.4 miles Path Width /maximum/: 1420 yards Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 05/23/2022 Start Time: 08:40 PM CDT Start Location: 4 ENE Whiteface / Hockley County / TX Start Lat/Lon: 33.6266 / -102.5438 End Date: 05/23/2022 End Time: 08:58 PM CDT End Location: 7 WSW Whitharral / Hockley County / TX End Lat/Lon: 33.6829 / -102.4312 Survey Summary: The survey found several locations along FM 303 with wooden power poles snapped at the base and two oil pump jacks overturned. The damage survey could not be continued farther east as roads were closed due to flooding. The remaining tornado track and end point estimated by KLBB WSR-88D Data. && EF Scale: The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories: EF0...Weak......65 to 85 mph EF1...Weak......86 to 110 mph EF2...Strong....111 to 135 mph EF3...Strong....136 to 165 mph EF4...Violent...166 to 200 mph EF5...Violent...>200 mph NOTE: The information in this statement is preliminary and subject to change pending final review of the events and publication in NWS Storm Data. NWS Lubbock thanks the Texas Tech-Atmospheric Science group and NSSL for their contributions of radar data.
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