Thunderstorm Wind — Hale, Texas

2024-05-16 · near (pvw)hale Co Arpt, Hale, Texas

Event narrative

A swath of severe thunderstorm winds occurred in Plainview measured by the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) and Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet. The AWOS at the Hale County Airport measured a wind gust of 60 mph at 1730 CST while the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Plainview measured a wind gust of 58 mph at 1727 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 → (34.1700, -101.7200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167577. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.