Name: Hail in Texas, May 21, 2001
Start: 2001-05-21T17:45
End: 2001-05-21T17:45
Location: Texas

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: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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 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 Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 21, 1:30 PM CST, 4 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 21, 1:30 PM CST, 4 hours 15 minutes before

SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
230 PM CDT MON MAY 21 2001

CURRENT SFC ANALYSIS AND VIS SAT SHOWS COLD FRONT FROM JUST N OF
KAUS...KCLL...KGGG TO KHOT. 88D SHOWS TSRA FIRING UP ACROSS CENTRAL
LA INTO MS.

SVR TSTM WATCH 265 IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM FOR OUR CWA. COORDINATED WITH
SPC...AND AGREE THE POSSIBILITY FOR LARGE AREAL COVERAGE OF TSRA FROM
SE TX TO AL WITH THIS SYSTEM. LAPS CAPES INCREASING ACROSS SE TX...
AND AS FORECASTED BY ETA. WILL KEEP SVR WORDING ALONG WITH
APPROPRIATE WATCH HEADLINES IN ZONES.

FOR THE FRONTAL PASSAGE...THE AVN IS THE FASTEST...AND NOT WELL
INITIALIZED WITH THE CURRENT 18Z SFC ANALYSIS. ETA/NGM LOOKS BETTER
IN HANDLING THE REST OF FORECAST...WHICH WILL HAVE THE FRONT BETWEEN
LCH/LFT BY MIDNIGHT...AND CLEAR ACROSS THE CWA (INLAND AND COASTAL)
BY 7 AM TUE. BEAUTIFUL...UNSEASONABLE COOLER WEATHER WILL BE IN
STORE ONCE THE CLOUDS CLEAR FROM SUNRISE TO NOON WEST TO EAST ACROSS
THE AREA TUE. TUE EVENING INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING LOOKS TO BE FAIRLY
COOL WITH LOWS APPROACHING RECORD LOWS IN A FEW PLACES. THESE RECORD
LOWS ARE:

AEX  50 IN 1954
BPT  56 IN 1967
LCH  55 IN 1929
LFT  56 IN 1954

WHILE TEMPS ARE FORECASTED TO BE ABOUT 3 TO 5 DEGREES ABOVE THESE
VALUES...A FEW LOW AREAS WITH EXCELLENT COOL AIR DRAINAGE UNDER
CALM WIND CONDITIONS COULD REACH THESE RECORDS.

THE WEEK OF THE FRONTS. CLOUDS WILL INCREASE BY THU MORNING WITH
ANOTHER FRONT TO MOVE THRU THE AREA BY THU AFTERNOON...GENERATING
TSRA FOR THU AFTERNOON AND EVENING. HOWEVER...THIS FRONT DOSENT LOOK
AS POTENT AS FAR AS COOLER AIR BEHIND IT. UPPER TROF/CUTOFF LOW WILL
CONTINUE OVER THE EASTERN US FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK...KEEPING A NW
FLOW WITH MINOR VORT MAXES ADVECTING SE. THIS WILL KEEP PC/MC
CONDITIONS WITH A CHANCE FOR SHRA/TSRA DURING THIS PERIOD.

8

.LCH...SCA...GMZ450-455-470-475

PRELIMINARY NUMBERS...
AEX 55/78/52/84/62 60000
BPT 60/81/58/84/66 60000
LCH 59/80/57/84/65 60000
LFT 59/80/57/84/64 60000

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 21, 1:45 PM CST, 4 hours before

LAZ027>033-041>045-051>055-TXZ180>182-201-215-216-220300-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
245 PM CDT MON MAY 21 2001

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE THIS EVENING...
...NEAR RECORD COLD TEMPERATURES TUESDAY NIGHT...

AN UNUSUALLY STRONG COLD FRONT WILL BE CONTINUING TO MOVE ACROSS
SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND THE SOUTHERN HALF OF LOUISIANA THIS EVENING. THE
FRONT WILL BE MOVING INTO A MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIRMASS...GENERATING A
LINE OF STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. THESE THUNDERSTORMS WILL HAVE
THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH AND LARGE
HAIL. WHILE THE THREAT FOR TORNADOES IS NOT VERY HIGH...AN ISOLATED
WEAK TORNADO CANT BE RULED OUT. HEAVY RAIN WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE
WITH 1 TO 2 INCH RAINFALL TOTALS EXPECTED.

IN THE WAKE OF THE FRONT...NEAR RECORD COLD TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED
BY WEDNESDAY MORNING AS A COLD CANADIAN HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS INTO THE
AREA. LOW TEMPERATURES WEDNESDAY MORNING WILL RANGE FROM NEAR 50
DEGREES ACROSS THE LAKES AREA OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS TO THE UPPER 50S
ALONG THE COASTAL SECTIONS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL LOUISIANA.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON THIS
DEVELOPING WEATHER SITUATION.

Local storm report, May 21, 5:20 PM CST, 25 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES, LA
620 PM CDT MON MAY 21 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....w

0616 PM    KIRBEYVILLE               TX   1.00 INCH HAIL
05/21/01   JASPER                         REPORTED BY LAW
                                          ENFORCEMENT.

THM

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:44 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Newton

When: May 21, 5:45 PM CST
Where: Newton County, 2 mi S of Newton
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 30.800, -93.733

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Texas in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Texas, May 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: 5244530.