Thunderstorm Wind — Motley, Texas

2023-05-23 · near Northfield, Motley, Texas

Event narrative

A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site near Northfield measured a wind gust of 60 mph.

Wider weather episode

Another consecutive evening of severe storms occurred on the Caprock on the evening of the 23rd as the atmosphere again became very unstable. Several of the thunderstorms were able to gain significant mid-level rotation which allowed them to generate very large hail. Hailstones as large as baseballs damaged multiple vehicles northwest of Shallowater (Lubbock County) along US Highway 84, while many other spots incurred impacts from hail as large as golf ball size. In addition to producing large hail, the slow moving storms also dumped torrential rainfall. One such pocket of torrential rain occurred just to the north of Plainview (Hale County), where several roads were underwater. Activity then shifted into the Rolling Plains late in the evening as activity morphed into upscale clusters of storms producing a few severe wind gusts.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.2655, -100.6000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1092981. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.