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Scattered severe storms return to West Texas |
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| Rotating wall cloud west of Denver City Sunday afternoon (1 May 2022). The picture is courtesy of Jack Maney. | |
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May started off with a bang, bringing the first bout of scattered severe thunderstorms to the South Plains region. Sunday, May 1st, started off dry and pleasant. However, as the winds switched around to southeast and increased, they carried rich moisture sitting downstate back into West Texas. |
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| Water vapor satellite loop valid from 12:11 pm to 12:36 pm on Sunday (1 May 2022). | |
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The moisture returned just in time to coincide with peak heating and the approach of an upper level disturbance through the Intermountain West. |
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| Lubbock WSR-88D radar animation valid from 3:54 pm to 6:19 pm on 1 May 2022. | |
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In response, scattered thunderstorms rapidly developed late Sunday afternoon. Relatively strong wind shear and moderate instability spurred several of the storms to rotate and produce very large hail. The configuration of the increasing and turning winds with height were right to favor splitting supercell (rotating) storms. |
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| Large hail that fell in Muleshoe (left) and Denver City (right) Sunday evening (1 May 2022). The left image is courtesy of Gil Rennels and the right one is courtesy of Charlie Espinoza and KAMC. | |
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The "left" splits raced north-northeastward bringing brief heavy rain, large hail and sporadic wind gusts. Golf ball to baseball size hail fell from the strongest of these northward-racing storms, which affected parts of Muleshoe and Levelland. Where the largest hail fell, western portions of Levelland experienced extensive damage, primarily from shattered glass. |
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| Late evening visible satellite loop valid from 7:33 pm to 7:41 pm on Sunday (1 May 2022). Note the shadows associated with the overshooting tops of the most intense thunderstorms. | |
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As opposed to the "left" splits, the "right" splits moved slowly to the east, producing locally heavy/flooding rains. These storms also dropped huge hail, near and greater than baseball size. |
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| Lubbock WSR-88D radar animation valid from 8:43 pm to 9:09 pm on 1 May 2022. A longer radar animation, from 1:37 pm to 9:11 pm can be VIEWED HERE. | |
| One of these storms developed in southeast New Mexico during the afternoon, then tracked steadily across the southern South Plains, from near Denver City to O'Donnell through the evening hours before finally diminishing as it approached the edge of the Caprock late in the evening. In addition to hurling damaging hail, a rotating wall cloud was occasionally observed with this storm. | |
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| Large hail that fell just north of O'Donnell Sunday evening (1 May 2022). The picture is courtesy Timothy Siliwinski. | |
| The severe weather was primarily confined to spots on the Caprock for the Texas Panhandle and South Plains, but ventured further east across the Permian Basin into the Big Country. The most intense cluster of storms produced a damaging tornado in Hermleigh and flooding rains (3-4+ inches) in Snyder. | |
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| Storm reports collected by the National Weather Service and displayed by the Storm Prediction Center for 1 May 2022. | |
| On the positive side, the thunderstorm activity did bring welcome moisture to a few locations, though meaningful rainfall was limited in coverage. Many locations across the South Plains and southern Rolling Plains saw a trace to couple tenths of an inch of rain, with heavier totals confined to southern parts of Yoakum and Terry Counties. Officially, the Lubbock Airport recorded 0.20 inches or rain, though most of the city of Lubbock saw less rain, with a few pockets of small hail too. | |
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| 24-hour radar-estimated and bias-correct rainfall ending at 7 am on 2 May 2022. | |
| Several locations were treated to a picturesque end of the day as the setting sun illuminated the storms. | |
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| Beautiful evening sunset, as viewed from south of Lubbock, on 1 May 2022. The picture is courtesy of John Lipe. | |
| The preliminary storm reports collected on this active late afternoon and evening can be found below. | |
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LUBBOCK TX
433 AM CDT MON MAY 02 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0445 PM HAIL 20 W BROWNFIELD 33.18N 102.62W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH YOAKUM TX PUBLIC
0530 PM HAIL LEVELLAND 33.58N 102.36W
05/01/2022 E1.50 INCH HOCKLEY TX SOCIAL MEDIA
PICTURE OF HAIL ON TWITTER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
0530 PM HAIL 2 W LEVELLAND 33.58N 102.40W
05/01/2022 E2.75 INCH HOCKLEY TX EMERGENCY MNGR
TIME AND LOCATION ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. REPORT RELAYED
FROM EM.
0535 PM HAIL 2 NW LEVELLAND 33.60N 102.39W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH HOCKLEY TX EMERGENCY MNGR
TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR
0540 PM HAIL 8 W DENVER CITY 32.97N 102.97W
05/01/2022 E2.75 INCH YOAKUM TX TRAINED SPOTTER
BASEBALL SIZE HAIL ON THE GROUND. PING PONG BALL SIZE
HAIL FALLING AT 5:45 PM. TIME OF BASEBALL SIZE HAIL
ESTIMATED.
0545 PM HAIL 5 NW LUBBOCK 33.63N 101.94W
05/01/2022 E1.00 INCH LUBBOCK TX PUBLIC
PICTURE OF QUARTER SIZE HAIL AT ERSKINE AND DOVER IN NW
LUBBOCK.
0545 PM HAIL 10 NNE LEVELLAND 33.71N 102.30W
05/01/2022 E1.50 INCH HOCKLEY TX SOCIAL MEDIA
PICTURE OF 1-1.5 INCH DIAMETER HAIL IN WITHARRAL,
TEXAS. HAIL FELL BETWEEN 4:45 AND 4:50 PM.
0548 PM HAIL DENVER CITY 32.97N 102.83W
05/01/2022 E2.00 INCH YOAKUM TX SOCIAL MEDIA
PICTURES ON TWITTER OF HAIL SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN GOLF
BALL SIZE.
0550 PM HAIL 3 S MULESHOE 34.19N 102.73W
05/01/2022 E2.50 INCH BAILEY TX STORM CHASER
CONTINUOUS GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL WITH SEVERAL AS LARGE
AS TENNIS BALLS.
0555 PM HAIL MULESHOE 34.23N 102.73W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH BAILEY TX CO-OP OBSERVER
PICTURE OF GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL.
0557 PM HAIL 5 N MULESHOE 34.30N 102.73W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH BAILEY TX STORM CHASER
0603 PM HAIL 1 WSW DENVER CITY 32.96N 102.85W
05/01/2022 E2.00 INCH YOAKUM TX STORM CHASER
0605 PM HAIL 7 WSW LAZBUDDIE 34.35N 102.72W
05/01/2022 E2.00 INCH PARMER TX STORM CHASER
2 TO 2.25 INCH DIAMETER HAIL SITTING ON THE SIDE OF THE
ROAD. TIME IS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
0626 PM TSTM WND GST 2 NE FRIONA 34.65N 102.69W
05/01/2022 M62 MPH PARMER TX MESONET
WEST TEXAS MESONET REPORT. WIND GUST OCCURRED WELL
NORTHWEST OF THE PRIMARY THUNDERSTORM CELL. A GUST TO 60
MPH WAS MEASURED AT 6:25 PM.
0647 PM TSTM WND GST 1 S PLAINVIEW 34.18N 101.71W
05/01/2022 M71 MPH HALE TX MESONET
WEST TEXAS MESONET
0650 PM TSTM WND GST 1 S PLAINVIEW 34.16N 101.72W
05/01/2022 M61 MPH HALE TX AWOS
0658 PM HAIL 8 SW WELLMAN 32.97N 102.53W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH TERRY TX TRAINED SPOTTER
PING PONG TO GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL FALLING 2 MILES NORTH
OF SEAGRAVES.
0702 PM TSTM WND GST 3 NNW MCADOO 33.77N 101.03W
05/01/2022 M68 MPH DICKENS TX MESONET
MEASURED BY THE WEST TEXAS MESONET. OCCURRED ON THE
BACK EDGE OF WEAK SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
0715 PM HAIL 6 SW WELLMAN 32.99N 102.50W
05/01/2022 E2.50 INCH TERRY TX TRAINED SPOTTER
GOLF BALL TO TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL ON THE GROUND. TIME
OF HAIL FALL ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
0726 PM HAIL 4 ESE WELLMAN 33.02N 102.36W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH TERRY TX STORM CHASER
HAIL FROM NICKEL TO GOLF BALL SIZE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM
RADAR.
0745 PM FUNNEL CLOUD 12 SSE BROWNFIELD 33.02N 102.19W
05/01/2022 TERRY TX STORM CHASER
WALL CLOUD AND POSSIBLE FUNNEL CLOUD. OBSERVER WAS
LOCATED 1 MILE WEST OF WELCH LOOKING NORTHWESTWARD.
LOCATION IS ESTIMATED.
0855 PM HAIL 2 N O`DONNELL 32.99N 101.83W
05/01/2022 E3.00 INCH LYNN TX TRAINED SPOTTER
SEVERAL PHOTOS OF HAIL AROUND 3 INCH IN DIAMETER. TIME
WAS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
0858 PM HAIL 1 NNW O`DONNELL 32.98N 101.84W
05/01/2022 E2.00 INCH LYNN TX STORM CHASER
0901 PM HAIL 5 ENE O`DONNELL 32.99N 101.75W
05/01/2022 E1.75 INCH LYNN TX STORM CHASER
MOSTLY 1 TO 1.25 INCH DIAMETER HAIL, WITH LARGEST GOLF
BALL SIZE
0902 PM HAIL 1 NNW O`DONNELL 32.98N 101.84W
05/01/2022 E2.50 INCH LYNN TX STORM CHASER
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