5 hail, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:44 UTC.
5 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Four severe single cell storms were initiated along an outflow boundary in southern Gaines and Dawson Counties. The storm that produced this hail was second from the east in the line in rural areas.
This storm was the eastern-most in the line in rural Dawson Co.
This storm was the western-most in the line near the New Mexico state line.
The storms in Dawson and Gaines Counties weakened as they moved southward, then sent out an outflow boundary that served as the focus for new development in Martin County. The character of these storms was much different as a cluster of very small cells formed versus the well-organized single cell to the north.
The cell that produced the hail in Luther was on the northern end of the cluster with the cell over Stanton.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, May 1997
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5611467, 5611468, 5611542, 5611543, 5611544.