Lightning — Willacy, Texas

2019-06-24 · near Willamar, Willacy, Texas

Event narrative

A strong cloud to ground lightning bolt struck and set ablaze a wind turbine and tower at the Willacy County Los Vientos wind farm during the initial severe thunderstorm that impacted the county during the early evening of June 24, 2019. Another strike destroyed a small grain silo just to the west of Lyford and Raymondville. Time of the strike is estimated from peak lightning frequency, which exceeded 300 cloud to ground strikes in 15 minutes.

Wider weather episode

Just 367 days after the last of the Great June Flood of 2018 had left its memorable mark on nearly all of the populated Rio Grande Valley, a confluence of atmospheric events came together during the late afternoon and evening of June 24th, 2019, to produce another memorable - and unfortunate - situation for parts of the Rio Grande Valley. This time, the impacted area was smaller and less populated but the results the same. For most of Willacy County's population, the western third of Cameron, and a corner of eastern Hidalgo, significant impacts were noted. These included:

Over a foot of rain fell in about six hours, including a peak total of more than 15 inches near Santa Rosa (Cameron/Hidalgo line); hundreds of streets flooded, including 30 Texas-managed highways; 1,188 homes were considered destroyed or incurring major damage requiring significant repairs, with an additional 182 homes sustaining minor damage or mildly affected (as of July 10). Individual Assistance (IA) costs were estimated at $27.6 million. Public Assistance (PA) costs were likely over $5 million, but totals were not available as of this writing. Total damage was likely to range from $50 to $100 million or more when all estimates have been received, and final estimated may not be known until late 2019.

More than 100 persons were evacuated to safe high ground from dozens of homes threatened by 2 or more feet of water in several locations in each county. At least 45,000 private and public utility power customers were without power at the peak of the storm, and estimated 65 to 75 mph winds caused at least five poorly built mobile homes to be rolled or demolished in eastern Hidalgo County. Lightning struck a wind turbine and set it ablaze in Willacy County, costing an estimated $5 million in damage.

New daily rainfall records were set at most available Rio Grande Valley climate recording locations. These totals ranged from 2.06 inches in Brownsville to 15.20 inches in Santa Rosa.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (26.4128, -97.7216)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 854916. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.