Hail — Terry, Texas

2022-05-01 · near Wellman, Terry, Texas

Event narrative

Numerous reports were received of a swath of hail from southwestern Terry County along US Highway 62/385 approximately eight miles southwest of Wellman to approximately four miles east-southeast of Wellman along Farm to Market Road 213. Hail stones ranged in size from ping pong ball size up to tennis ball size. No damage was reported.

Wider weather episode

Moisture quickly returned to West Texas during the day on the first ahead of an approaching upper level short wave. 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 storms. 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. Western portions of Levelland experienced extensive damage, primarily from shattered glass. The right splits moved slowly to the east, producing locally heavy rains. These storms also dropped huge hail with one greater than baseball size near O'Donnell (Lynn County).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.9681, -102.5276)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1016018. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.