Thunderstorm Wind — Lubbock, Texas

2012-04-29 · near Wolfforth, Lubbock, Texas

Event narrative

Destructive downburst winds occurred for a period of 20 minutes immediately south and west of the track of a mesocyclone moving southeast across far southwest Lubbock County. A West Texas mesonet site located 6SSW Wolfforth sampled this region of the supercell and measured the following winds over a span of 20 consecutive minutes:

750 pm CST: West at 51 mph gusting to 80 mph /

755 pm CST: West at 61 mph gusting to 85 mph /

800 pm CST: Northwest at 71 mph gusting to 95 mph /

805 pm CST: Northwest at 55 mph gusting to 70 mph /

810 pm CST: North at 50 mph gusting to 76 mph /

A NWS storm survey revealed that a few trees were uprooted about 5S Wolfforth and that nearby roofs from a house and mobile home were removed.

Wider weather episode

Moist upslope flow along a retreating east-west oriented surface boundary focused scattered thunderstorms early this evening across the western South Plains. Ample wind shear and instability allowed several of these storms to quickly become supercellular producing very large hail, some giant, accompanied by destructive straight-line winds as they drifted east-southeast. The most prolific supercell developed west-northwest of Levelland around 1800 CST and moved eastward near Highway 114 before merging with another supercell near the Hockley-Lubbock County line. At this point, the supercell intensified further and turned southeast moving across southwest and south-central Lubbock County as a significant high precipitation supercell. Destructive winds and very large hail (up to softball size in a few locations) accompanied this storm as it tracked from near Smyer southeast to Woodrow creating extensive damage to structures and vehicles in its path. A NWS storm survey revealed the most significant damage occurred from wind-driven hail along FM 41 just west of Highway 87 and also between FM 179 and Woodrow Road. In some instances, the west-facing exterior of homes in these areas was completely shredded. This damage was compounded by the supercell's slow motion which resulted in up to a 15-minute period of destructive wind gusts as high as 95 mph as measured by a West Texas Mesonet site located 6SSW Wolfforth.

Later this evening, the low-level jet intensified and ignited additional severe storms over portions of the central and southern South Plains. One of these storms was a slow-moving elevated supercell that moved over areas of southeast Hockley and southwest Lubbock Counties previously impacted by the earlier supercell. This storm created additional instances of large hail; however, excessive rainfall in a short time span over already wet soils lead to large areas of mostly rural flooding. Many roads especially between Levelland and Wolfforth became impassable due to swollen playa lakes. Nearly 20 miles of FM 1585 was inundated with water and disabled at least two vehicles.

Total economic losses were estimated at $25 million.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4300, -102.0500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 370069. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.