Marine Thunderstorm Wind · Gulf of Mexico

The NDBC buoy 42020 (60nm south of Corpus Christi and about 50 nm northeast of Port Mansfield) recorded nearly two hours of gale-force gusts (34 knots or higher) between 1115 PM CST May 8 (1215 AM CDT May 9) and 110 AM CST (210 AM CDT) May 9th, from a slow moving line/cluster of thunderstorms that crossed the entire Lower Texas Gulf waters. Peak winds reached 45.9 knots at 1140 PM CST May 8th (1240 AM CDT May 9th). There were brief breaks in the gale-force gusts after 1240 AM CST (140 AM CDT).

Multiple rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms erupted across the Lower Texas Gulf and Laguna Madre waters on two occasions on May 8th: First, during the mid morning through afternoon, then another smaller window during the early to mid evening nearshore, and around/just after midnight (May 9) offshore. Wind gusts in stronger cells ranged from gale (34 knots) to near storm (48 knots) force. The discrete nature of the cells likely produced areas of hail, but there were no reports as of this writing.