Hail — Gaines, Texas

1999-04-30 · near Seminole, Gaines, Texas

Event narrative

A multicell cluster of severe storms that crossed into New Mexico from Reeves and Loving Counties, TX just before 1pm CDT emerged from Lea County, NM at around 6pm. The city of Seminole was pounded by large hail, high winds and flooding rains.

Wider weather episode

A classic severe weather setup was taking place on this day and would continue into the next day. A strong upper level low pressure system was centered near Las Vegas, NV and was moving slowly eastward toward the area. Surface winds were backed to the southeast with rich moisture.One item of interest was the early start time of the storms with the first tornado by 1130 am CDT...only about 10 am local sun time. With the mid-level flow blowing parallel to the orientation of multicell complexes were oriented, training of storms was common over several parts of the region. In the evening tornadoes and hail events subsided and flash flooding began to take control.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.7200, -102.6500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5694050. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.