Damaging Winds in Texas, May 25 to 26, 2000

A strong upper level disturbance moved from Arizona into the Southern Plains during the late afternoon and evening hours of the 25th. A cold front had pushed into the Permian Basin on the 24th and had become quasi-stationary during the morning of the 25th. With the approaching upper level system and corresponding pressure falls, which were centered over eastern New Mexico, the front moved back northward as a warm front into the southern South Plains and southern Rolling Plains during the afternoon. A very unstable air mass was in place and substantial low level wind shear existed, especially near the warm front.Initial convective development occurred over Gaines County, where a storm quickly became severe. This storm split with the left-moving supercell tracking across Terry, Hockley, and Lamb Counties. Hail up to the size of baseballs accumulated in the wake of this storm. The right-moving supercell headed for southern Lynn County where it hammered O'Donnell with damaging hail up to baseball size and wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph that caused significant damage. Several other severe thunderstorms developed over and moved across the South Plains, extreme southern Panhandle, and Rolling Plains during the evening. The most damaging of which was a supercell that developed over Parmer County and moved across northern Castro County producing hail up to baseball size that resulted in property and crop damage.