Tornado in Hockley County, Texas

Numerous reports of a funnel cloud and a brief touchdown were received on a supercell just west of Wolfforth. The tornado briefly touched down in an open field in Hockley County just west of the Lubbock/Hockley County line. No damage was known from this tornado, therefore, a rating of EF-Unknown was assigned.

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.