Flash Flood in Lynn County, Texas

A thunderstorm continuously trained over portions of Lynn County north of Tahoka creating torrential rainfall. An emergency management official with Lynn County reported that US Highway 87 was being closed due to water over the roadway and that a water rescue had to be performed. An NWS storm survey the next day revealed that water had previously been over the road. A number of vehicles were still stranded on the side of the road in standing water the next day.

Very hot temperatures and a dryline allowed scattered thunderstorms to develop on the afternoon of the 31st. Thunderstorms initially developed along this dryline from the northern Rolling Plains into the southern South Plains. The thunderstorms gradually grew upscale into a broken, slow moving line that persisted over the central Rolling Plains into the south-central South Plains through the evening hours. These slow moving thunderstorms primarily produced torrential rainfall but also large hail and damaging wind gusts. Excessive runoff from the prolonged heavy rain flooded fields and inundated area roadways. Some of the heaviest rainfall was along US Highway 87 north of Tahoka in Lynn County. Water over the roadway and a water rescue prompted the closure of the highway. Several additional vehicles became flooded out along US Highway 87. Additional flooding occurred along US Highway 380 west of Post (Garza County) and in northwestern Lubbock (Lubbock County). As storms decreased in intensity late in the evening, a couple of wake lows formed producing severe wind gusts near Slaton (Lubbock County) and Paducah (Cottle County).