Severe Weather on April 1

A severe weather event occurred across parts of West Central Texas (southern Big Country, northern Concho Valley and northern Heartland areas) on April 1.

An upper level storm system was located over New Mexico and eastern Arizona, and a disturbance ahead of this system entered West Texas.  A dryline advanced east into the Concho Valley during the late afternoon, and a cold front moved southeast across northern and central parts of West Central Texas during the evening.  With the proximity of these weather features along with unstable air and favorable vertical wind shear, strong to severe thunderstorms occurred.  A few thunderstorms initially developed near the intersection of the dryline and cold front near Colorado City, and then tracked east and northeast into Nolan and Fisher Counties. Large hail up to golfball size was reported in the vicinity of Roscoe.

During the evening, a storm developed over southwestern Runnels County and became severe.  This storm initially was almost stationary, and produced very heavy rainfall of 2-4 inches.  The storm then tracked east across southern Runnels and Coleman Counties, eventually merging with a band of thunderstorms in Brown County.  

Very large hail up to teacup size was reported with this storm in Runnels County.  A tornado was reported with this storm in Coleman County, about 10 miles south of Coleman.  This storm also produced very large hail of baseball to grapefruit size in Coleman County.  Late in the evening, very heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding in the vicinity of Santa Anna (eastern Coleman County).

A total of 17 reports were received from these severe storms on April 1.  

Figure 1 shows a loop of animated radar imagery, with the severe thunderstorm which tracked east across southern Runnels and Coleman Counties.

Figure 1:  Animated Loop of Radar Imagery on the evening of April 1 (between 6 PM and 10 PM).