Hail in Texas, May 26, 1996

The season's most widespread severe weather event hit the South Plains from the late afternoon of the 25th through the early morning hours of the 26th. Many towns were pelted with up to golfball-size hail. Some of the worst property damage occurred in O'Donnell (southern Lynn County) where many houses and vehicles were heavily damaged by golfball-size hail, and where trees and structures were damaged due to strong winds. Equally large - but more damaging - hail struck southern Lubbock, where roofs across a wide area were damaged.Several tornadoes occurred during this severe weather outbreak. The longest track tornado was reported in northern Dickens County by spotters with several agencies. Only minor damage occurred in this mostly open-country area, but the storm started near McAdoo and ended east of Afton. The same storm caused a tornado near the four-corner intersection of Motley/Cottle/King/Dickens Counties (as reported by a NWS cooperative observer near Dumont), and another one that downed telephone poles southwest of Paducah (Cottle County). Other weak, short-lived tornadoes were reported near Friona, northeast of Tahoka, near Wilson, and southwest of Guthrie.Some areas received very heavy rainfall in a very short period of time. Flooding was reported with torrential rains in Lubbock, where many roads were closed due to high water. Also, Interstate 27 was temporarily closed in Abernathy (Hale County).