Late May 2019 brought more rounds of severe thunderstorms to West Texas, including giant hail, damaging winds, tornadoes and torrential rain. An active dryline, rich moisture and strong instability and unsettled southwest flow aloft provided the ingredients for the rounds of severe weather. After a reprieve from the storms in mid-May, the active weather returned in full force on Monday, May 20th.
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Lubbock WSR-88D radar animation valid from 3:43 pm to 4:01 pm on 20 May 2019. Additional radar animations are available at: 4:56 pm to 5:13 pm; 6:29 pm to 6:48 pm; and 10:12 pm to 10:48 pm.
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The impetus to kick off the severe weather on Monday, May 20th, was a strong upper low approaching via the Four Corners. Thunderstorm erupted early in the day, primarily from the Texas Panhandle northward, but soon followed over the South Plains and Rolling Plains shortly after midday. The activity continued to redevelop and affect portions of the region through the evening, lingering into the late-night hours across the Rolling Plains. At least a few brief tornadoes formed from these storms, including one near McAdoo, another west of Paducah and one east of Dickens. Thankfully, these tornadoes occurred over open land and did no known damage.
The intense storms also generated damaging winds, large hail and torrential rainfall. The wind and golf ball size hail did considerable tree damage in and around south and east Lubbock during the afternoon, while hail as large as tennis balls fell east of Memphis. A wind gust as high as 80 mph was measured at the West Texas Mesonet located on the west side of Spur.
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Minor tree damage in south Lubbock caused by the storms that moved through Monday afternoon (20 May).
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Several rounds of strong to severe storms then trained over the southern Rolling Plains well into Monday night. In addition to severe weather, these storms dropped very heavy rain that resulted in minor flooding in and around Aspermont.
The below map shows that the rainfall fell roughly along and east of the I-27 and US-87 Corridor, with the heaviest rain falling in a swath across the southeast half of Stonewall County. The West Texas Mesonet site near Aspermont recorded 3.17 inches of rain.
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Radar-estimated, bias-corrected 24-hour rain totals ending at noon on 21 May 2019. The rain totals recorded by the West Texas Mesonet over this same period VIEWED HERE.
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After a couple day reprieve, the active weather returned, with four straight days of severe weather in and around the South Plains over the Memorial Day Weekend.
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Pictures taken from Lubbock (left) and Slaton (right) on the evening of 23 May 2019. The left picture is courtesy of @austinjones and the right is courtesy of KAMC .
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Thursday, May 23rd, kicked off this active stretch as deep Gulf moisture returned to West Texas, pushing well into eastern New Mexico early in the day. The dryline sharpened in the afternoon as it mixed into the western South Plains, and was the focus for scattered thunderstorm development. One storm spawned a brief anticyclonic tornado west of Brownfield, but the main impact from these storms were large hail and torrential rain.
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Lubbock WSR-88D radar animation valid from 7:44 pm to 8:22 pm on 23 May 2019. A visible satellite loop showing storm development between 4 pm and 5 pm on the 23rd can also be VIEWED HERE.
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Numerous spots saw hail as big as golf balls, while baseball size hail was reported near Shallowater and tennis ball size hail fell west of Floydada.
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(Left) Large hail that fell west of Floydada, courtesy of David Baxter III. (Right) Wall cloud near Brownfield, courtesy of Mike Olbinski. Both pictures were taken on 23 May 2019.
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The slow-moving supercell thunderstorms repeatedly tracked across the central South Plains before spreading northeastward into the southeast Texas Panhandle. As they did so, the torrential rain, tallying to 1 to 3+ inches, caused flooding around the region.
The next day, Friday, May 24th, brought more of the same. This time the storms started early in the day, firing up just southwest of Lubbock before midday. This activity grew in coverage and intensity through the afternoon hours and persisted through much of the evening before finally diminishing late. To make matters worse, the thunderstorms trained over the same locations, dropping torrential rainfall as they did so.
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Flooding near Highway 84 and Loop 289 in Lubbock on Friday, 24 May 2019. The picture is courtesy of Marcus Diaz.
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The excessive rainfall quickly flooded Lubbock before expanding its horizons to engulf locations to the east-northeast, including Ralls, Floydada and Matador. Unfortunately, all of this rain did cause extensive flooding, with the runoff inundating many locations across the central South Plains for the second day in a row.
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Flooding in Ralls (left) and near Idalou (right) on 24 May 2019. The pictures are courtesy of KAMC.
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The focus for the nearly continuous thunderstorm development was a boundary left over from the previous day's activity that was reinforced by the outflows from the ongoing storms on the 24th. This boundary, visible in the below radar imagery, sat across the southern South Plains through the day, moving very little. Warm and very moist air south of the boundary advancing northward was continually lifted which resulted in the rapid thunderstorm redevelopment.
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Views of the storms from Clovis (left) and Hale Center (right) on 24 May 2019. The left image is courtesy of Storm Search 7 and the right is courtesy of Roger Edwards.
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Rain totals from this day were impressive in a swath from the central South Plains into the far southeast Texas Panhandle where 2 to 4+ inches were common. Officially, the Lubbock Airport recorded 2.40" on this day, setting a daily rainfall record (the previous record was 2.18", set in 1937) and instantly catapulting the yearly rainfall above average (to 6.83", which is 1.27" above the average year-to-date total of 5.56").
The weather was quieter much of the following day, Sunday, May 26th, but quickly turned active in the evening as storms moved out of eastern New Mexico. The bulk of the activity affected the Panhandles, but one lone supercell tracked out of east-central New Mexico and across the northwest South Plains into the south-central Texas Panhandle. This storm produced a large tornado in New Mexico mid-evening, then went on to produce a few (or more) tornadoes as the storm tracked from east of Muleshoe to just north of Hart and Sunnyside, to north of Tulia, after dark.
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Tornado near Earth, Texas, (left) and funnel and possible tornado near Lariat (right) on Sunday evening (26 May 2019). The left image is courtesy of Bruce Haynie and the right is courtesy of Jessica Rivera and KAMC.
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Rainfall over the course of the extremely active late May stretch was more than generous for a large chunk of the South Plains, southeast Texas Panhandle and northern Rolling Plains, as the above graphic illustrates. Many locations record 3+ inches of rainfall. The heavy rainfall did cause a lot of problems, but it also added water to a few of the reservoirs in the region.
A listing of the Preliminary Local Storm Reports (LSRs) for this active stretch of weather can be found below.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LUBBOCK TX
735 AM CDT TUE MAY 21 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0213 PM HAIL 8 WSW DUMONT 33.76N 100.65W
05/20/2019 E0.88 INCH DICKENS TX STORM CHASER
0216 PM HAIL MCADOO 33.73N 101.01W
05/20/2019 E1.25 INCH DICKENS TX NWS EMPLOYEE
0300 PM TORNADO 4 W PADUCAH 34.01N 100.37W
05/20/2019 COTTLE TX EMERGENCY MNGR
0301 PM TORNADO 4 W PADUCAH 34.01N 100.37W
05/20/2019 COTTLE TX EMERGENCY MNGR
TORNADO BRIEFLY ON THE GROUND.
0347 PM NON-TSTM WND GST NEW HOME 33.33N 101.91W
05/20/2019 M75 MPH LYNN TX MESONET
GUSTED TO 63 AND 70 MPH AS WELL
0347 PM TSTM WND DMG NEW HOME 33.33N 101.91W
05/20/2019 LYNN TX SOCIAL MEDIA
FEW POWER LINES DOWNED
0352 PM HAIL 9 E MEMPHIS 34.73N 100.38W
05/20/2019 M2.50 INCH CHILDRESS TX STORM CHASER
0404 PM TSTM WND GST 4 SSW LUBBOCK 33.53N 101.88W
05/20/2019 M60 MPH LUBBOCK TX NWS OFFICE
0405 PM TSTM WND GST 4 SSW LUBBOCK 33.52N 101.90W
05/20/2019 M58 MPH LUBBOCK TX BROADCAST MEDIA
0407 PM TSTM WND DMG SLIDE 33.41N 101.93W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX EMERGENCY MNGR
SEMI-TRAILER BLOWN ONTO CAR 1/4 MILE WEST OF SLIDE ROAD
ON FM41
0408 PM HAIL 7 SSW LUBBOCK 33.49N 101.92W
05/20/2019 E1.75 INCH LUBBOCK TX PUBLIC
114TH AND QUAKER IN LUBBOCK
0408 PM TSTM WND DMG IDALOU 33.66N 101.68W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX TRAINED SPOTTER
POWERLINES BLOWN DOWN
0408 PM TSTM WND DMG 6 SSW LUBBOCK 33.50N 101.92W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX SOCIAL MEDIA
TRAMPOLINE BLOWN OVER FENCES INTO ALLEY AT UNIVERSITY
AND 114TH
0409 PM TSTM WND DMG 12 SSE LUBBOCK 33.42N 101.80W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX BROADCAST MEDIA
POWERLINES BLOWN OVER ON HWY 87 JUST SOUTH OF FM41
0410 PM TSTM WND DMG 1 SE LUBBOCK 33.58N 101.88W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX UTILITY COMPANY
TREE DOWN IN MIDDLE OF STREET AT 23RD/24TH ON AVE L
0410 PM TSTM WND DMG 4 S LUBBOCK 33.52N 101.88W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX SOCIAL MEDIA
TREE SNAPPED AT CORNER OF AVE W AND 77TH STREET
0412 PM TSTM WND DMG 3 NW WOODROW 33.48N 101.88W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX BROADCAST MEDIA
HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION COLLAPSED
0413 PM TSTM WND GST 6 NNE LUBBOCK 33.67N 101.82W
05/20/2019 M54 MPH LUBBOCK TX ASOS
0418 PM HAIL TURKEY 34.39N 100.90W
05/20/2019 E1.00 INCH HALL TX CO-OP OBSERVER
0420 PM HAIL 5 W O`DONNELL 32.97N 101.92W
05/20/2019 E1.75 INCH LYNN TX BROADCAST MEDIA
0430 PM TSTM WND GST 5 ENE ABERNATHY 33.88N 101.76W
05/20/2019 M58 MPH HALE TX MESONET
0431 PM HAIL FLOYDADA 33.98N 101.34W
05/20/2019 E1.00 INCH FLOYD TX CO-OP OBSERVER
0435 PM TSTM WND GST 2 NNE FLOYDADA 34.00N 101.33W
05/20/2019 M74 MPH FLOYD TX MESONET
0439 PM HAIL 6 S RALLS 33.59N 101.38W
05/20/2019 E1.00 INCH CROSBY TX EMERGENCY MNGR
0528 PM HAIL 3 SSE LORENZO 33.63N 101.51W
05/20/2019 E0.75 INCH CROSBY TX EMERGENCY MNGR
0625 PM TSTM WND GST 1 W SPUR 33.48N 100.88W
05/20/2019 M61 MPH DICKENS TX MESONET
0630 PM TSTM WND GST 1 W SPUR 33.48N 100.88W
05/20/2019 M80 MPH DICKENS TX MESONET
0630 PM TSTM WND DMG 3 NW SPUR 33.51N 100.89W
05/20/2019 DICKENS TX FIRE DEPT/RESCUE
APPROX. 20 HIGH LINES DOWN ALONG FM 1868
0635 PM TSTM WND DMG 6 NNW SPUR 33.55N 100.89W
05/20/2019 DICKENS TX FIRE DEPT/RESCUE
ROOF BLOWN OFF HOME AT HWY70 AND CR466; POWER POLES
DOWN
0647 PM TORNADO 13 E DICKENS 33.62N 100.61W
05/20/2019 DICKENS TX STORM CHASER
LARGE RAIN-WRAPPED TORNADO
0654 PM TORNADO 16 E DICKENS 33.62N 100.57W
05/20/2019 DICKENS TX STORM CHASER
TREES BLOWN DOWN AT CR371 AND HW82
0732 PM TSTM WND DMG 4 SSW LUBBOCK 33.52N 101.90W
05/20/2019 LUBBOCK TX SOCIAL MEDIA
TREE BROKEN ONTO HOUSE AT 82ND AND UNIVERSITY
0738 PM HAIL 2 S GUTHRIE 33.60N 100.32W
05/20/2019 E1.75 INCH KING TX STORM CHASER
HAIL WAS WIND DRIVEN
1141 PM HAIL JAYTON 33.25N 100.57W
05/20/2019 E1.00 INCH KENT TX LAW ENFORCEMENT
QUARTER SIZE HAIL NEAR JAYTON CEMETARY.
1251 AM FLOOD N ASPERMONT 33.14N 100.22W
05/21/2019 STONEWALL TX LAW ENFORCEMENT
8 INCHES OF WATER FLOWING OVER HIGHWAY 83 ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF ASPERMONT.
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