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2 NEW sets of images hve been
posted below!
Wednesday May 23rd, 2007 brought a variety of
weather to the panhandles. Severe storms began to form just after
4:00 pm in the northeast Texas Panhandle. A few locations northwest
of Miami in Roberts County witnessed hail stones up to 2 inches
in diameter, and a tornado touchdown around 4:30 pm. Just after
5:00 pm, the wind machine began to crank with thunderstorm wind
gusts topping out above 60 mph in southern Roberts County, and
again in southern Ochiltree County at 5:30 pm. A storm near Wolf
Creek Park in Ochiltree County produced a tornado just before
5:30 pm, and then continued to produce large hail and strong wind
gusts through 5:45 pm. Large hail continued to fall cross Ochiltree,
Hutchinson, Hansford, Beaver and Lipscomb Counties throuh 7:00
pm with occasional 60 mph wind gusts, and another 3 tornado reports.
The severe storms and heavy rain then continued to occur across
the northeast Texas Panhandle through the early morning hours
on Thursday May 24th. The first report of flash flooding came
in just before midnight, but the widespread flooding began shortly
after 1:00 am on the 24th. Up to 1 foot of rain fell in some areas,
with widespread rain amounts in the 8 to 10 inch range!
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what caused this mixed bag of weather? Well, the image above depicts
the synoptic pattern in place during the event. A large low pressure
trough was dipping down through Colorado and New Mexico along the
Rocky Mountains. This provided a southwest component to the winds
in the upper atmosphere, and created a source of lift that helped
sustain the thunderstorms. Also in place was a very slow moving warm
front (shown as a red line with half circle bumps). This warm front
was the main feature that served as a source for storm initiation.
However, you need more than a warm front to cause storms. You may
notice in the above image two lines loosely depicting the "isodrosotherms"
(or a line of equal dew point). The purple line shows the 55 degree
isodrosotherm with the teal line indicating the 65 degree isodrosotherm.
For instance, 65 degree dew points occured along and to all points
east of the teal line, with 55 degree and above dew points occuring
along and east of the purple line. The key is to note that there was
a very high amount of moisture in the air. A general rule of thumb
you can remember is that when the dew point temperatures reach 65
degrees or more, then thunderstorms often occur. Many times these
thunderstorms are strong and can occasionaly produce tornadoes. One
other factor that helped produce the lingering heavy rain and lead
to the eventually flooding was the cold front moving toward the panhandles
from the north. This front reached the northwestern Texas Panhandle
in the late evening on the 23rd, and helped continue storm formation
into the early morning hours on the 24th. |
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The image above is a screen
capture of a 3 hour precipitation estimate from the WSR 88D Radar.
The blue blocks indicate 4 to 6 inches of precipitation occuring during
that 3 hour period (9:00 pm to Midnight). Note the relative position
of the warm front from the synoptic map (top right) and the matching
band of heavy precipitation on this radar image. Remember, this is
just a 3 hour estimate. 4 to 6 inches of rain in 3 hours can cause
significant flooding
issues. |
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| The images above show some
of the flooding from areas in northern Lipscomb County. The bridge
in the above image is along highway 305 in Lipscomb County. |
This set of images show the damage from
tornadoes that affected northern Lipscomb County and Ochiltree County.
Official storm surveys and EF scale ratings are not yet complete.
Please check back to find out the final details on all of the May
23rd tornadoes. |
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| These pictures were taken near
Wolf Creek Park. The brief touch down of a tornado can be seen. |
This set of images were taken by Tracy
Meier from the storm damage in Lipscomb County. |
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As of
June 6th, the National Weather Service in
Amarillo confirmed that 14
tornadoes touched down on May 23rd. This puts the current seasonal
tornado total at 48 confirmed tornadoes.
This passes 1995 as the most active tornado season on record (there
were 46 reported tornadoes in 1995). NOTE
- This total does NOT include the tornadoes that occured on May
31st. We had 7 additional tornadoes on May 31st. So this seasons
total tornadoes would be 55!
As always, this page will be updated as the information
becomes available. If you have any images from the tornadoes, floods,
or other severe storms from May 23rd and 24th, please send them
to John.Brost@noaa.gov and we will post your photos on this page
(with your consent of course - full credit will be given).
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www.weather.gov 
National Weather Service Forecast Office
