Severe Weather and Flooding Threats for the Central U.S.; Dangerous Heat in the Southern and Western U.S.

Severe weather and flooding threats will continue for portions of the central U.S. over the next couple of days, with multiple rounds of thunderstorms expected. Dangerous heat will persist across the southern and western U.S. through mid-week. Hot and dry conditions will fuel fire weather concerns for the Intermountain West, where dry thunderstorms may spark additional wildfires. Read More >

May 21, 2012 Severe Storms

The combination of an unstable air mass, a retreating frontal boundary, and an approaching upper-level disturbance ignited a round of severe thunderstorms across eastern New Mexico and the western Texas Panhandle. One supercell thunderstorm develop over Oldham County, Texas and slowly drifted southward. This storm produced a tornado 4 miles northwest of Adrian and hail up to the size of golfballs in Adrian. The tornado was rated EF-0 with winds estimated of 65 mph. It was on the ground for 3 minutes with a path length of 1,000 yards. The tornado was estimated to be 100 yards wide. The supercell thunderstorm eventually was overtaken by a line of storms moving out of eastern New Mexico. A squall line of thunderstorms became well-established across the southwestern Texas Panhandle and moved to the southeast. This line of storms quickly became a wind threat, and in fact, a 61-mph wind gust was recorded in downtown Amarillo.

RADAR IMAGES


KAMA storm relative velocity at 8:37 p.m.	KAMA base reflectivity at 8:37 p.m.

STORM IMAGES


Tornado 5 miles NW of Adrian, TX. (Courtesy of Chris Kimble)	Supercell facing west on I-40 west of Vega, TX. (Courtesy of Jason Persoff)

Tornado due west of Vega, TX. (Courtesy of Jason Persoff)	Tornado becoming rain-wrapped west of Vega, TX. (Courtesy of Jason Persoff)

Southeast of Adrian looking northwest. (Courtesy of Wesley Luginbyhl)

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