Widespread rainfall falls on West Texas (5-6 May 2025)

Widespread rainfall falls on West Texas
5-6 May 2025

Water vapor satellite loop valid from 1:30 pm on Monday to 5:01 pm on Tuesday (5-6 May 2025).

After a relatively "quiet" start to May, and following an active end to April, the weather quickly turned back to the unsettled side on Monday, May 5th. Even before Cinco de Mayo, Sunday (May 4th) turned active in New Mexico, with one intense storm surviving the trek across the state line, bringing hail and heavy rain to southern parts of Yoakum County Sunday evening before weakening over Terry County, southwest of Brownfield. Areas farther east and northeast, into the South Plains, did experience a little light rain Sunday night into early Monday, though the bulk of the activity didn't really kick off until Monday morning.

The instigators to the return to the unsettled weather was the approach of a mid/upper level storm system via the Four Corners in combination with improving low-level moisture from the Gulf. Helping to focus the shower and thunderstorm development was a cold front that sagged southward through the region Sunday night into Monday. Returning moisture up and over the frontal zone triggered the development of a band of elevated thunderstorms that tracked from southwest to northeast over much of the South Plains, Rolling Plains and southern Texas Panhandle Monday morning. 

The morning rain gradually waned, but clouds held firm over much of the region, keeping temperatures on the cool side. Highs only reached the middle to upper 50s over much of the southern Texas Panhandle into the central South and Rolling Plains on Monday. Where sunshine did occur, the far southwest South Plains, around Denver City, was able to warm into the upper 60s and lower 70s. The cool and dreary weather had a positive, in that it limited instability, and thus the intensity of the thunderstorms that moved over the South Plains region late Monday evening into early Tuesday.

The rain shield gradually shifted over to the north and east Tuesday morning, but not before providing generous rain to the entire region. As the above and below graphics illustrate, significant rain fell across the whole area, with the most generous totals tending to favor locations on the Caprock. Many spots from the southwest and south-central Texas Panhandle through the central and western South Plains recorded rain totals near or above 2 inches. The Dimmitt and Vigo Park WTM sites were the big winners, measuring over 3 inches of rain between Sunday night and Tuesday morning, with the bulk of that falling between Monday morning and Tuesday morning.