Hail and Damaging Winds in Texas, October 1, 2002

Name: Hail and Damaging Winds in Texas, October 1, 2002
Start: 2002-10-01T18:05
End: 2002-10-01T20:10
Location: Texas

October 1, 2002 · NWS MAF · 8 events in 2 counties and zones

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: $400,000
Crop damage: $1.6 million
Events: 8

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 MAF wrote it up.

Severe thunderstorms struck the northwest parts of the Permian Basin during the early evening of the 1st. The most intense storm was a supercell which moved from far northwest Andrews County across the western half of the Gaines County. This storm produced very large hail and damaging winds. Local newspaper reports indicate that crop and rural property damage was wide spread. The most intense damage began about 17 miles west of Seminole, just south of U.S. Highway 180, and continued north. Almost ninety power poles were blown down by the storm, and several thousand electrical customers were without power through the remainder of the night. Crop damage was reported to be substaintial, with five circles of peanuts destroyed along with 8,000 acres of cotton. Two additional severe storms moved across central Gaines County later in the evening. These also produced large hail. Close to 1,000 acres of cotton was also destroyed by these storms.The economical impact due to agricultural damage was reported to be significant, since crops could not be replanted so late in the growing season. The total estimated agricultural losses are in the one to one and a half million dollar range.

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 Midland/Odessa, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 1, 4:40 PM CST, 1 hour 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 1, 4:40 PM CST, 1 hour 25 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX
540 PM CDT TUE OCT 1 2002

COVERAGE/INTENSITY OF CONVECTION SLOWLY INCREASING ACROSS THE UPPER
TRANS PECOS.  WE WILL LIKELY REFINE POPS SLIGHTLY...TO MATCH CURRENT
TRENDS AND EXPECTED EVOLUTION OF PRECIP THIS EVENING.  AREA OF
CONVECTION FORMING IN AN AREA OF DECENT SURFACE HEATING AND
CONVERGENCE NEAR A SURFACE TROUGH.  INCREASING MID AND UPPER LEVEL
FLOW AHEAD OF WESTERN U.S. TROUGH IS AIDING IN LIFT...ALONG WITH A
WEAK RIPPLE IN THE SOUTHWEST FLOW OVER THE BIG BEND.  AREA IS FAIRLY
UNSTABLE WITH MSAS LIS OF -7 DEGREES C.

LINDLEY

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION BELOW...

MID/UPPER LEVEL TROF EVIDENT ACRS WRN U.S. WITH WEAK LEAD SHRTWV TROF
AXIS FROM SW NM INTO PANHANDLES.  WEAK SHRTWV TROF AXIS AS BEEN
ACTIVE LAST FEW DAYS/NIGHTS AND PROBABLY WORTH HOLDING POPS OVERNIGHT
AGAIN AS ASSOCD 3H DIVERGENCE/5H-3H OMEGA/DPVA NOTED ACRS SE NM/PB.
DRYLINE TO TAKE SHAPE TMW PM AS WRN U.S. TROF MOVES INTO GREAT BASIN
RGN. LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE LOOKS GENERALLY WEAK ATTM BUT ENUF
INSTABILITY TO KEEP POPS IN FCST.  WED NIGHT LLJ STRENGTHENS AND NRN
PARTS OF CWFA MAY BE WITHIN AREA OF WAA, ERGO BEST POPS N. THURSDAY
MAIN MID/UPPER LEVEL TROF AXIS WILL MOVE ACRS NM.  DRYLINE/PAC FRONT
TO BE ACRS CENTRAL PB LATE AFTERNOON.  BEST DYNAMICS TO PASS N...BUT
LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE/SFC HEATING...WEAKER DYNAMICS ENUF TO SUPPORT
POPS...EXCEPT W.  MSL GRADIENT TIGHTENS CONSIDERABLY IN WAKE OF TROF
WITH BREEZY/WINDY POST FRONTAL CONDITIONS THURSDAY NIGHT/FRI
AM.  PROBABLY 2-3 CATEGORIES COOLER FRIDAY WITH SUNNY CONDITIONS.
WARMER SATURDAY AS LEE TROF FORMS IN ADVANCE OF ANOTHER DEEPENING
UPPER TROF WITH ANOTHER FRONT POSSIBLE SUNDAY.

PRELIMS

MAF  67/88/67/89   122
LSA  62/87/63/86   222
6R6  70/90/69/90   111
MRF  59/85/59/85   123
CNM  61/91/60/88   221

.MAF...
TX...NONE.
NM...NONE.

Hazardous weather outlook, Oct 1, 2:02 PM CST, 4 hours 3 minutes before

NMZ027>029-033-034-TXZ045>048-050>053-057>063-067>070-074-075-
079>082-258-021100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX
302 PM CDT TUE OCT 1 2002

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST TEXAS AND SOUTHEASTERN
NEW MEXICO.

.THROUGH OVERNIGHT...

ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE TONIGHT.  THE BEST CHANCE
FOR THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT WILL BE WEST OF A LAMESA...TO
KERMIT...TO VAN HORN LINE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.  SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED.  HOWEVER...WIND GUSTS OVER 40 MPH
AND DEADLY LIGHTNING WILL BE POSSIBLE IN AND NEAR ANY THUNDERSTORM
THAT DEVELOPS TONIGHT.

.SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED OVERNIGHT.

.WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY...

ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE FROM WEDNESDAY
INTO THURSDAY AS A STRONG UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE MOVES THROUGH THE
AREA.  SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED...BUT WIND GUSTS TO 50
MPH AND DEADLY LIGHTNING MAY ACCOMPANY ANY THUNDERSTORMS THAT
DEVELOP.

FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON AS
WINDS STRENGTHEN FROM THE SOUTHWEST AND THE RELATIVE HUMIDITY AT THE
SURFACE DRIES OUT.  FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS MAY BECOME ESPECIALLY
HAZARDOUS ACROSS THE GUADALUPE AND DAVIS MOUNTAINS.

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY.

THIS PRODUCT...ALONG WITH OTHER WATCHES...WARNINGS...ADVISORIES...AND
STATEMENTS ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN MIDLAND
CAN BE FOUND ON THE INTERNET AT THE FOLLOWING (LOWER CASE):
HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/MAF.

SN

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:04 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Andrews

When: October 1, 6:05 PM CST
Where: Andrews County, 17 mi W of Frankel City
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 32.383, -103.067

Thunderstorm Wind, Andrews

When: October 1, 6:05 PM CST
Where: Andrews County, 17 mi W of Frankel City
Measured: 52 kt (60 mph)
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 32.383, -103.067

Hail to the size of quarters and 60 MPH winds were reported along the Texas/New Mexico border between Eunice and Frankel City.

Thunderstorm Wind, Gaines

When: October 1, 6:15 PM CST to 6:50 PM CST
Where: Gaines County, 24 mi SW of Seminole
Measured: 70 kt (81 mph)
Property damage: $375,000
Crop damage: $500,000
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 32.467, -102.950

An intense supercell thunderstorm moved across the western sections of Gaines County. This storm resulted in damaging winds and large hail. Reports from the local emergency manager indicate eighty-seven power poles were blown down from the storm. Although reports of large hail were only confirmed in the two locations listed, evidence of wind driven hail was present in crop damage across a large part of western Gaines County.

Hail, Gaines

When: October 1, 6:15 PM CST
Where: Gaines County, 23 mi SW of Seminole
Measured: 2.5 in hail
Crop damage: $500,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 32.483, -102.933

Crop damage resulted from large hail up to the size of tennis balls.

Thunderstorm Wind, Gaines

When: October 1, 6:40 PM CST
Where: Gaines County, Higginbotham
Measured: 52 kt (60 mph)
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 32.900, -102.983

Hail, Gaines

When: October 1, 6:40 PM CST
Where: Gaines County, 6 mi SE of Higginbotham
Measured: 2 in hail
Property damage: $25,000
Crop damage: $300,000
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 32.833, -102.917

Large hail combined with severe winds to produce damage to crops and rural properties.

Hail, Gaines

When: October 1, 7:30 PM CST
Where: Gaines County, 9 mi S of Seminole
Measured: 1.5 in hail
Crop damage: $250,000
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 32.583, -102.650

Hail, Gaines

When: October 1, 8:10 PM CST
Where: Gaines County, 9 mi S of Seminole
Measured: 0.88 in hail
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 32.583, -102.650

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Texas in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Texas, October 2002

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: 5318510, 5318584, 5318587, 5318590, 5318585, 5318586, 5318588, 5318589.