Tornado and Hail in Texas, April 30, 2001

Name: Tornado and Hail in Texas, April 30, 2001
Start: 2001-04-30T18:21
End: 2001-04-30T20:10
Location: Texas

April 30, 2001 · NWS AMA · 12 events in 3 counties and zones

Severe thunderstorms developed over southwestern Roberts county. damaging hail and an isolated tornado during the evening hours.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $70,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 12

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS AMA wrote it up.

Severe thunderstorms developed over southwestern Roberts county. The storms moved southwest and then south across Carson and northern Armstrong counties producing large...damaging hail and an isolated tornado during the evening hours.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 30, 3:25 PM CST, 2 hours 56 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 30, 3:25 PM CST, 2 hours 56 minutes before

TEXAS/OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
425 PM CDT MON APR 30 2001

MAIN MID LEVEL SHORTWAVE PASSING WELL TO THE NORTH OF RGN TODAY HAS
BEEN UNDERGOING SHEAR ALONG ITS BASE WITH ENERGY BEING DRAWN BACK SW
OVER THE PNHDLS. MEANWHILE...WEAK SFC TROUGH HAS REMAINED NEARLY
STATIONARY MOST OF THE DAY...MEANDERING FROM N CNTRL KS...SSWWD
ACROSS THE PNHDLS AND INTO SERN NM.

ABOVE FACTORS COMBINED WITH MODERATE INSTABILITY...HAVE DECIDED TO
CONTINUE FIRST PERIOD FCST ALONG SAME LINES AS AFTN UPDATE...I.E.
SLIGHT CHANCE/CHANCE OF EARLY EVENG SHRA AND TSRA. INCREASING SWLY
DOWNSLOPE FLOW WILL COMBINE WITH MID-LVL THERMAL RIDGE OVER HIER
TRRN OF NM ON TUE TO CREATE VERY WARM DAY FOR THE PNHDLS. HOWEVER...
WARM TEMPS WILL BE SHORT-LIVED AS ANOTHER COLD FRONT IS EXPECTED TO
REVISIT THE AREA BY LATE WED. SHORT RANGE MODELS FCST THIS SCENARIO
TO VARYING DEGREES WITH THE ETA FARTHEST SOUTH FRONTAL MOVEMENT.
THEREFORE...CONFIDENCE REMAINS MODERATE AT BEST REGARDING FRONT/S
MOVEMENT. AT THIS TIME...BELIEVE THAT FRONT WILL PUSH SOUTH ACROSS
THE OK PNHDL WED MORNG AND THE TX PNHDL WED AFTN. MEANWHILE...
SHORTWAVE MOVING E ACROSS THE NERN PACIFIC WILL DIVE SE AND DEEPEN
IN WAKE OF CURRENT NRN STREAM WAVE. BY EARLY THU...SAID WAVE SHOULD
BE CUTOFF OVER NRN AZ. MOVEMENT OF CLOSED LOW WILL BE RATHER SLOW...
PERHAPS NOT LIFTING OUT UNTIL LATE SAT. THIS MAY VERY WELL SET THE
STAGE FOR THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WIDESPREAD RAINFALL THE TX/OK PNHDLS
HAS EXPERIENCED IN A WHILE...PARTICULARLY IF SFC FRONT STALLS ACROSS
THE FAR SRN TX PNHDL. COLD FRONT MAY LIFT BACK N AS WARM FRONT BY
FRI WITH DRYLINE DEVELOPING BY MID-DAY WITH CHANCE FOR STRONG
CONVECTION.

CONFIDENCE DIMINISHES CONSIDERABLY DURING THE SECOND HALF FO THE
EXTENDED AS LATEST MEDIUM RANGE MODELS BEGIN TO DIVERGE BY SAT.
ASIDE FROM MAINTAINING PERSISTENCE INTO MON...LITTLE CHANGE IN THE
FCST.

.AGMA...
TX...NONE.
OK...NONE.

JH

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Apr 30, 4:41 PM CST, 1 hour 40 minutes before

TXZ012-017-010300-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
541 PM CDT MON APR 30 2001

TXZ012-017-010300-
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AMARILLO HAS CLEARED THE FOLLOWING
COUNTIES FROM SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 181. COUNTIES CLEARED
INCLUDE:

IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE:
POTTER...RANDALL...

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF...AMARILLO...CANYON...

SCHNEIDER

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:21 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

11 hail, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 6:21 PM CST
Where: Carson County, Skellytown
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.567, -101.183

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 6:25 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 2 mi S of Skellytown
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.533, -101.183

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 6:26 PM CST
Where: Carson County, Skellytown
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.567, -101.183

Hail, Hutchinson

When: April 30, 6:30 PM CST
Where: Hutchinson County, 11 mi E of Borger
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 35.667, -101.183

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 6:52 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 4 mi W of White Deer
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.433, -101.250

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 6:59 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 7 mi W of White Deer
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.433, -101.300

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 7:10 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 4 mi NE of Panhandle
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.383, -101.333

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 7:23 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 5 mi W of Panhandle
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.350, -101.467

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 7:30 PM CST
Where: Carson County, Panhandle
Measured: 2.75 in hail
Property damage: $70,000
Reported by: FIRE DEPT/RESCUE SQUAD
Coordinates: 35.350, -101.383

Tornado, Carson

When: April 30, 7:42 PM CST to 7:43 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 3 mi W of Panhandle
Rating: F0
Path length: 0.1 mi
Path width: 10 yd
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 35.350, -101.433

An official storm survey was made and it was determined that the tornado remained over open country.

Hail, Carson

When: April 30, 8:06 PM CST
Where: Carson County, 7 mi S of Panhandle
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.250, -101.383

Hail, Armstrong

When: April 30, 8:10 PM CST
Where: Armstrong County, 4 mi NNW of Claude
Measured: 0.88 in hail
Reported by: BROADCAST MEDIA
Coordinates: 35.167, -101.400

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Texas in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Texas, 2001 Warnings in Texas, April 2001

Sources

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: 5242758, 5242759, 5242760, 5242761, 5242762, 5242763, 5242764, 5242765, 5242766, 5242767, 5242768, 5242769.