Hail — Kent, Texas

2021-05-17 · near Jayton, Kent, Texas

Event narrative

Law enforcement reported a swath of hail along Texas Highway 70 from Jayton to about two miles northwest of Jayton.

Wider weather episode

A widespread severe thunderstorm event occurred on the afternoon and evening of the 17th. Thunderstorms initially formed along a dryline near the Texas/New Mexico state line and along an outflow boundary from previous day storms. The ample instability was complemented by large scale lift moving overhead from an upper level jet moving into the southern High Plains. Very intense supercells developed across the entirety of the South Plains, Rolling Plains, and extreme southern Texas Panhandle due to the abundant amount of unstable air. Several supercells produced hail up to baseball size as they slowly moved across the region. One particularly robust rotating storm developed over Hockley County and moved eastward into Lubbock County and through the city of Lubbock. This storm developed several funnel clouds and a brief tornado in far eastern Hockley County. The low level circulation moved directly over the southern portion of the city of Lubbock but did not produce any additional tornadoes. Decaying thunderstorms also produced two high wind gusts. These high wind gusts were measured by the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet at Friona (Parmer County) 64 mph and Lesley (Hall County) 59 mph. Lastly, thunderstorms repeatedly formed over central Bailey County causing flash flooding along Farm to Market Road 746 west of Texas Highway 214.

In the early morning hours of the 18th, stratiform precipitation from decaying thunderstorms produced two high wind gusts. One near Graham of 62 mph and the other near Hackberry (Cottle County) of 59 mph. Both of these reports came from the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2500, -100.5800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 952351. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.