Thunderstorm Wind — Yoakum, Texas

2024-05-16 · near Plains, Yoakum, Texas

Event narrative

A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site near Plains measured severe wind gusts from 1535 CST through 1537 CST. A peak wind gust of 68 mph was measured at 1535 CST.

Wider weather episode

A second consecutive day of severe storms occurred on the South Plains of West Texas on the 16th. An upper level low pressure system was slowly moving across central New Mexico during the afternoon bringing increasing lift over the region. A cold front reinforced outflow boundary had pushed well to the south of the area during the day leaving the region in cooler near surface air. Thunderstorms initially developed over eastern New Mexico closer to the upper low and where sunshine allowed instability to grow. As storms propagated to the east into the South Plains, they weakened due to the cooler and more stable conditions. However, some of the storms became strong enough to produce severe wind gusts on the caprock.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2234, -102.8300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167573. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.