A wet end to June and start to July 2025

A wet end to June and start to July 2025

Street flooding at 98th Street and Indiana Avenue in Lubbock Thursday morning (3 July 2025). The image is courtesy of the City of Lubbock.

The end of June and early July 2025 brought unsettled weather to West Texas. Isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms affected some part of the South Plains, Rolling Plains and/or southern Texas Panhandle daily the final week of June into the first few days of July. Although not everyone saw rain on any given day, through the course of the unsettled stretch everyone did measure some rain, with healthy totals in spots.


Lubbock radar animation valid from 5:16 am to 6:54 pm on Thursday (3 July 2025).

Monsoonal moisture and daytime heating was often the trigger for thunderstorm development the final week of June, and with plenty of moisture around, rain often lingered well into the overnight hours. Highs breached the 90s for most, resulting in decent instability each afternoon. The instability fueled a few stronger storms that generated gusty outflow winds and small hail, but the primary impact from the activity was localized heavy rain.


12-hour rainfall ending at 7 pm on Thursday (3 July 2025). The data are courtesy of the West Texas Mesonet (WTM) and the National Weather Service (NWS).

Eventually, an outflow-aided frontal zone moved through the region on the final day of June. In addition, deep tropical moisture enhanced the monsoonal moisture plume streaming over the region the first few days of July. The result was thick and persistent cloud cover that helped keep temperatures from warming too much, with highs mostly relegated to the 70s and lower 80s. However, the "cool" temperatures came with extreme humidity by West Texas standards (or normal summertime humidity by the Gulf Coast standards). The moisture did support bursts of heavy rain, even from seemingly innocuous tropical-like showers.


7-day radar-estimated and biased-corrected precipitation ending at 7 am on Sunday (6 July 2025). A larger view, encompassing much of Texas, can be FOUND HERE.

The morning and early afternoon of Thursday (3 July) provided widespread showers and a few embedded thunderstorms that targeted the central South Plains, including Lubbock. Many spots in Lubbock received a quick inch of rain, with 2+ inches over eastern parts of the city, and even heavier totals in and around Abernathy. Officially, the Lubbock Airport measured 1.56 inches on July 3rd, boosting its yearly total to 12.11 inches (2.86 inches above normal through July 3rd).


5-day rain totals ending at 7 pm on Thursday (3 July 2025). The data are courtesy of the WTM and the NWS. A close up of the Lubbock area can be FOUND HERE.

Over the course of late June and early July, the entire South Plains region recorded meaningful rainfall. The heaviest rain, 1 to 3+ inches, fell at many spots on the Caprock, as well as the southern Rolling Plains. At times, the heavy bursts of rain did create flooding issues, though in general, the impacts weren't too severe. Unfortunately, much heavier and more concentrated rain did target parts of Central Texas, from around San Angelo to northwest of San Antonio, late on the 3rd into the 4th of July, which generated massive flooding and led to numerous fatalities.