Hail in Cochran County, Texas

A pair of slow moving and short-lived thunderstorms resulted in significant damage to cotton crops in northeastern Cochran County during the 17:00 CST hour of the 21st. Local newspaper reports and agricultural officials indicate that up to 15,000 acres of cotton were damaged or destroyed. Although reports did not specify hail size, estimates indicated here are based on damage and radar depictions of well-defined reflectivity three-body scatter artifacts.

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours of the 21st along a pre-existing low level boundary over the western and southern South Plains of west Texas. One of the initial storms produced quarter size hail near Wilson (Lynn County). Outflow from this storm interacted with the pre-existing boundary and newly developing convection to result in a well-documented non-mesocyclonic tornado near New Home (Lynn County). The most significant impact from the event, however, occurred in northeastern Cochran County during the early evening hours when a pair of thunderstorms produced a swath of large hail that caused major damage to 15,000 acres of cotton crops. Agricultural losses were estimated at $3 million.