Heavy Rain — Donley, Texas

2013-08-12 · near Clarendon, Donley, Texas

Event narrative

Heavy rain over Donley County indirectly caused a fatal car wreck around 3 pm CST 2 miles east of Clarendon (Donley County). A 2012 Cadillac SRX was traveling in the eastbound lane of U.S. Highway 287 when it encountered heavy rain from a thunderstorm. Visibility was restricted to the point of the driver of the Cadillac stopped on the highway. An eastbound 2005 Ford F-250 pickup truck struck the rear of the Cadillac. The driver of the Cadillac was pronounced decease at the scene and the passenger of the Cadillac was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. The status of the pickup driver is unknown at the time of this report.

Wider weather episode

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed along a surface trough draped across the southern Texas Panhandle during the afternoon hours of the 12th. These thunderstorms moved very slowly and stayed over one area for a prolonged period of time. This slow movement coupled with unseasonably high Precipitable Water values of 1.4 inches lead to periods of heavy rain across the southern Texas Panhandle. In the most intense downpours, visibility was greatly limited which made traveling on local roadway extremely difficult and dangerous. The surface trough which provided the focus for thunderstorm development moved south of the Texas Panhandle by 6 PM CST which lead to the dissipation of precipitation across the panhandle.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.9277, -100.8651)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 475033. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.