Flash Flood in Hall County, Texas

The same storm responsible for producing a large, EF-2 tornado near Plaska also produced significant flash flooding over much of northern Hall County late this afternoon. Additional rounds of thunderstorms through the evening would go on to produce eight inches of rain as measured by a NWS CO-OP observer in Estelline. The storm survey discovered significant flood damage to bridges, roads and a golf course in Estelline which had large chasms cut into the property. Also, one SUV was swept off US Highway 256 about five miles northeast of Estelline after driving through raging floodwaters that consumed a shallow bridge. The two occupants of the vehicle were rescued and unharmed, but their vehicle was a complete loss from water damage. The total flood damage to infrastructure alone would likely reach several million USD.

The first in a multi-day event produced widespread large hail, tornadoes, and flash flooding but the largest impacts were felt in the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle. An upper level jet streak provided the necessary lift acting upon a very unstable and strongly sheared atmosphere. Supercell thunderstorms began as isolated cells on the caprock and became more widespread once they moved off the caprock. Initially, storms produced very large hail and damaging winds but an extremely moist atmosphere and slow movement to the storms brought on flash flooding. The most damaging impacts came in Hall County where a nearly stationary storm dropped up to eight inches of rain. The extreme runoff from the storms inundated normally dry washes and creek beds. The floods damaged or destroyed several bridges and roadways and also lead to high water rescues in Lakeview (Hall County).