Late September heavy rain for many on the Caprock (24-26 September 2026)

Late September heavy rain for many on the Caprock
24-26 September 2026

View from the south side of Lubbock immediately in advance of thunderstorms with heavy rain Friday morning (25 September 2026). 

The active stretch of September weather had another relative peak from the 24th to the 26th. Rounds of showers and thunderstorms occurred in advance of a storm system that lingered across the Desert Southwest through this period. Several embedded disturbances interacted with a rich stream of monsoon moisture to trigger the rounds of rainfall.

The rain expanded eastward into the south-central Texas Panhandle and western and central South Plains late Thursday night into early Friday morning (September 24th-25th). The shower and thunderstorm intensity increased Friday morning as a potent disturbance ejected from the southwestern trough. This led to a complex of thunderstorms tracking out of eastern New Mexico and across the South Plains around and after daybreak Friday.

The leading edge of the thunderstorms brought brief torrential rain along with wind gusts of 40-50 mph. Light to moderate rain persisted after the initial line of storms for another couple hours over much of the Caprock. Unfortunately, the activity lost steam as it moved eastward, with much of the Rolling Plains missing out on the rain altogether.

Following a lull in activity Friday afternoon and early evening, another round of thunderstorms developed in eastern New Mexico and spread into the western South Plains as the primary storm system began to eject from the southern Rockies. One storm became intense, producing a funnel cloud near Cannon AFB, before moving into northwestern Parmer County after 10 pm. Thankfully, no tornado or known damage occurred from this storm as it moved into Texas. 

However, scattered non-severe thunderstorms continued all night across the southern Texas Panhandle and northern South/Rolling Plains, eventually exiting to the east of the region Saturday morning (September 26th). Brief heavy rain accompanied this overnight activity, though it generally moved fast enough to prevent any significant flooding concerns. A final round of scattered storms occurred along a surface trough over the Rolling Plains late Saturday afternoon into the evening. Although more limited in coverage than earlier rounds, this activity provided rain to a few spots in the Rolling Plains.

By the conclusion of this multi-day event, most locations on the Caprock had picked up significant rainfall. The heaviest rain, around and above 2 inches, fell on much of the southwestern Texas Panhandle and northwestern half of the South Plains, while a swath of 3 to 5+ inches affected locations from around Amarillo through Friona and Clovis. Rain totals generally decreased with eastern extent, with spots in the Rolling Plains seeing little to no rain. Lubbock was located within the gradient, generally picking up 1 to 2 inches of rain. Officially, the Lubbock Airport measured 1.47 inches over this stretch, which boosted the annual running total to 11.15 inches (though still almost 4 inches below the average year-to-date precipitation). Farther east, Childress Airport officially measured 0.80 inches over this period, lifting their annual total to 12.31 inches (about 7 inches below the average year-to-date precipitation).

A list of the preliminary storm reports collected from September 23rd to 26th can be found below.