Late May and early June bring widespread rain to West Texas (31 May - 4 June 2022)

Late May and early June bring widespread rain to West Texas 
31 May - 4 June 2022

Several rounds of showers and thunderstorms affected West Texas during the very end of May into the first few days of June 2022. The active weather kicked off on May 31st, when a stationary front combined with plenty of heat, moisture and instability to bring severe weather and widespread heavy rain to the south-central and southeast Texas Panhandle and adjacent areas of the South Plains and Rolling Plains. A detailed discussion of the active last day of May can be FOUND HERE.

The following days, into early June, brought cooler temperatures and additional rounds of thunderstorms. The front that sparked the activity on May 31st moved through the South Plains region on June 1st, providing the much cooler air on gusty northerly winds. Low clouds also filled in behind the front, which further intensified the temperature gradient Wednesday afternoon. As the above plot shows, temperatures ranged from the lower and middle 50s across the western Texas Panhandle to the upper 80s and lower 90s across the southern South and Rolling Plains Wednesday afternoon, as the front was moving through.

The front was located south of the area, in the Permian Basin, by late in the day Wednesday, which helped focus the severe weather there during the late afternoon and early evening hours. However, additional isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed well north of the front, late Wednesday evening (see the radar animation at the top of this page). The most intense of these storms generated very heavy rain and large hail, as big as baseballs in Matador. 

In total, over the unsettled stretch, widespread significant rain fell on the region. The heaviest rain, from 1 to 3+ inches, was common over roughly the southeast 2/3rds of the South Plains, the southeast Texas Panhandle and much of the Rolling Plains. Officially, the Lubbock Airport recorded 0.80 inches, though much of the city proper received 1 to 2 inches. Childress officially recorded 2.29 inches over this same stretch. The widespread rain helped to further ease the ongoing drought, though unfortunately the northwest South Plains and southwest Texas Panhandle largely missed out on the heaviest of the rain.

The preliminary storm reports collected by NWS Lubbock over this unsettled period can be viewed below: