Hail — Lubbock, Texas

2019-05-05 · near Wolfforth, Lubbock, Texas

Event narrative

This was the first of at least two hail swaths that impacted many areas of south and southwest Lubbock. Fortunately, the hail fell without any strong winds, but minor hail damage was likely inflicted to thousands of vehicles across the area.

Wider weather episode

Very strong instability developed across the South Plains this afternoon east of a sharp dryline. Scattered thunderstorms developed along the length of this dryline by 1600 CST and slowly matured into severe thunderstorms, including supercells. A remnant outflow boundary near the US Highway 84 corridor drifted west and interacted with an already stout supercell in southwest Lubbock County. This supercell proceeded to anchor to this boundary as it moved slowly southward and supported at least two sizable tornadoes in Lynn County over the next two hours. One of these tornadoes lasted 65 minutes and grew very intense with over 150 knots of gate-to-gate rotation noted per the Lubbock WSR-88D. These tornadoes narrowly missed population centers such as Tahoka and O'Donnell, but extensive lead time from warnings and excellent storm spotter reports gave the public plenty of time to seek shelter. This prolific supercell also produced very large hail to tennis ball size, intense RFD winds over 80 mph, and flash flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4980, -102.0229)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 811767. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.