An active and very complicated round of severe thunderstorms affected west Texas during the late afternoon and evening of the 5th. Severe weather development was focused in two areas of the region.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 episode as NWS MAF wrote it up.
An active and very complicated round of severe thunderstorms affected west Texas during the late afternoon and evening of the 5th. Severe weather development was focused in two areas of the region. Convective initiation occurred first near a sub-synoptic scale outflow boundary that was situated across the southeast Permian Basin. This feature was a remnant from overnight convection to the northeast of the area. Two supercell thunderstorms developed along the boundary over rural areas of southeast Midland and northern Upton Counties. As these storms moved east, storm-scale outflow boundaries were observed in local warning radar base reflectivity and velocity data arcing away from the storms toward the west. Both of these boundaries interacted with the larger scale baroclinic boundary under a field of strongly growing convective towers over southern and central Midland County and northeast Crane County. A series of at least four landspout tornadoes were observed as these interactions occurred.The mesoscale boundary began propagating west-northwest across the basin as the supercell storms provided convective enhancement to the cool (east) side of the boundary. Meanwhile strong to severe thunderstorms began propagating east from the mountainous areas of southeast New Mexico and southwest Texas. The convectively enhanced outflow boundary interacted with the complex of storms over the Upper Trans Pecos region. Large hail and two tornadoes were observed in east-central Reeves County.
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 Jun 5, 12:43 PM CST, 4 hours 9 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX 143 PM CDT SAT JUN 5 2004 .SHORT TERM... NO CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS REASONING. .LONG TERM... BY 12Z SUNDAY...THE THREAT OF STORMS/RAIN WILL BE DECREASING ACROSS THE NORTHEAST ZONES AS THE MCS EXPECTED TO AFFECT THE AREA OVERNIGHT/EARLY MORNING WILL BE PROPAGATING SOUTHEAST AND WEAKENING. WILL MAINTAIN CHANCE POPS THROUGH 18Z TO ACCOUNT FOR LINGERING ACTIVITY ACROSS THE NORTHEAST BASIN. AGAIN EXPECT AN OUTFLOW BOUNDARY TO WORK ACROSS THE AREA IN THE WAKE OF THE MORNING CONVECTION. MESOSCALE MODELS DEPICT A SURFACE LOW DEVELOPING IN THE VICINITY OF THE MOUNTAINS ALONG THIS BAROCLINIC ZONE. WEAK LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE NEAR THE LOW AND WEAK UPSLOPE FLOW WILL LIKELY RESULT IN THE BEST CHANCE FOR AFTERNOON STORMS TO BE ACROSS THE HIGHER TERRAIN. THE LARGE SCALE PATTERN WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED BY A MID/UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OVER THE SOUTHERN ROCKIES THROUGH MONDAY. DESPITE CONTINUED MOIST/SOUTHEAST LOW LEVEL FLOW...EXPECT LARGE SCALE SUBSIDENCE WILL GENERALLY KEEP CONVECTIVE PROBABILITIES IN CHECK AND RESTRICTED TO THE MOUNTAINS MONDAY AND TUESDAY. FLOW WILL THEN TRANSITION TO THE SOUTHWEST AS A LONGWAVE TROUGH BECOMES ESTABLISHED OVER THE SOUTHWEST U.S. BY MID WEEK. FALLING HEIGHTS AND STRENGTHENING LEE TROUGHING MAY INCREASE THE CHANCE OF CONVECTION ACROSS THE WEST... AND WILL MAINTAIN ISOLATED MENTION OF THUNDER THERE WEDNESDAY. THIS FEATURE WILL EJECT OVER THE CENTRAL ROCKIES AND INTO THE CENTRAL/ NORTHERN PLAINS BY FRIDAY...RESULTING IN ZONAL FLOW OVER THE REGION. CAN NOT RULE OUT MINOR WAVES PROPAGATING IN THE SOUTHWEST/ZONAL FLOW COMBINING WITH SURFACE TROUGH/DRYLINE TO AID THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT ANY DAY THROUGH THE EXTENDED...YET SEE NO SPECIFIC TIMEFRAMES WITH RELATIVELY HIGHER PROBABILITIES TO PINPOINT ATTM. THUS WILL MAINTAIN SILENT NON-ZERO POPS IN THE GRIDS. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... BIG SPRING TX 95 63 97 71 / 10 50 30 10 CARLSBAD NM 96 63 100 67 / 20 30 10 10 DRYDEN TX 97 69 97 72 / 10 30 20 10 FORT STOCKTON TX 99 68 100 71 / 20 40 20 10 GUADALUPE PASS TX 96 67 94 68 / 20 10 10 10 HOBBS NM 95 66 99 68 / 20 30 10 10 MARFA TX 90 55 94 61 / 30 40 20 10 MIDLAND INTL AIRPORT TX 96 65 97 71 / 20 40 20 10 ODESSA TX 97 66 97 71 / 20 30 10 10 WINK TX 103 71 103 73 / 20 30 10 10 && .MAF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... TX...NONE. NM...NONE. && 70/10
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX 1251 PM CDT SAT JUN 5 2004 NMZ027>029-033-034-TXZ045>048-050>053-057>063-067>070-074-075- 079>082-258-061000- ANDREWS-BIG BEND AREA-BORDEN-CENTRAL LEA COUNTY-CRANE- DAVIS/APACHE MOUNTAINS AREA-DAWSON-ECTOR-EDDY COUNTY PLAINS-GAINES- GLASSCOCK-GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS-GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS OF EDDY COUNTY- HOWARD-LOVING-MARFA PLATEAU-MARTIN-MIDLAND-MITCHELL- NORTHERN LEA COUNTY-PECOS-PRESIDIO VALLEY-REAGAN- REEVES COUNTY AND UPPER TRANS PECOS-SCURRY-SOUTHERN LEA COUNTY- TERRELL-UPTON-VAN HORN AND HIGHWAY 54 CORRIDOR-WARD-WINKLER- 1251 PM CDT (1151 AM MDT) SAT JUN 5 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST TEXAS AND SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING OVER MUCH OF SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO...AND FROM THE DAVIS MOUNTAINS AND UPPER TRANS PECOS REGIONS OF WEST TEXAS NORTH ACROSS THE WESTERN PERMIAN BASIN. LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS ARE THE PRIMARY SEVERE WEATHER THREATS. SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FROM THE DAVIS MOUNTAINS NORTH ACROSS SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO THIS AFTERNOON. THESE STORMS WILL GROW QUICKLY...AND A FEW OF THESE STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE BY LATE AFTERNOON AS THEY SPREAD EAST ACROSS THE UPPER TRANS PECOS AND WESTERN PERMIAN BASIN REGIONS OF WEST TEXAS. WIND GUSTS OVER 60 MPH AND HAIL TO THE SIZE OF GOLFBALLS CAN BE EXPECTED FROM THE STRONGEST OF THESE STORMS. RAINFALL RATES EXCEEDING ONE INCH PER HOUR MAY RESULT IN LOCALIZED FLOODING OF ARROYOS...DRAWS...AND OTHER LOW LYING AREAS. LASTLY...FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING WILL BE POSSIBLE IN AND NEAR ANY THUNDERSTORM. THESE STORMS ARE FORECAST TO WEAKEN AFTER SUNSET AND SHOULD DISSIPATE LATE THIS EVENING. MEANWHILE...A COMPLEX OF THUNDERSTORMS IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP OVER THE TEXAS PANHANDLE AND THE NEW MEXICAN HIGH PLAINS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING. THIS COMPLEX WILL THEN MOVE SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE SOUTH PLAINS TONIGHT...AND SHOULD AFFECT THE WESTERN LOW ROLLING PLAINS AND EASTERN PERMIAN BASIN AFTER MIDNIGHT. ALTHOUGH THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE LATE TONIGHT...WIND GUSTS NEAR 40 MPH...SMALL HAIL...BRIEF HEAVY RAIN...AND DEADLY LIGHTNING CAN BE EXPECTED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES...EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS...STORM SPOTTER GROUPS...AND OTHER INTERESTED CONCERNS SHOULD MONITOR THIS SITUATION AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION SHOULD SEVERE WEATHER THREATEN YOUR AREA. SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUESTED BY LATE AFTERNOON ACROSS SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO AND THE UPPER TRANS PECOS...DAVIS MOUNTAINS...AND WESTERN PERMIAN BASIN REGIONS OF WEST TEXAS. 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 http://www.srh.noaa.gov/maf.
The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 16 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:52 UTC.
6 tornado, 4 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
The first in a series of landspout tornadoes developed just west of State Highway 349 south of Midland.
A second landspout tornado developed just east of U.S. Highway 349 south of Midland.
A third landspout tornado was observed southeast of the city. This tornado likely crossed State Route 158.
The Odessa Police Department reported a tornado (landspout) in northeast Crane County near U.S. Highway 385.A series of at least four landspout tornadoes developed as outflow from two isolated severe thunderstorms interacted with a pre-existing boundary remnant from the previous night's convection. Strong towering cumulus clouds above the boundary interactions provided sufficient vertical stretching to result in narrow dust filled vortices that visually extended toward the cloud bases. These landspouts were observed by many people in Midland and law officials in Odessa resulting in numerous reports from both public and local emergency officials.
A rural resident measured a 70 MPH wind gust from a severe thunderstorm.
A severe thunderstorm wind gust was measured by the Marfa AWOS.
The large outflow boundary that was enhanced by severe storms over southern Midland and northern Upton Counties continued west across the western Permian Basin and the Upper Trans Pecos. This feature was observed using local warning radar until it interacted with strong to severe convection moving off the higher terrain of southwest Texas. As the outflow boundary encountered this convection near Pecos, local officials observed the first of two tornadoes that occurred in eastern Reeves County south of Pecos near State Highway 17. This tornado may have been a landspout given that at the time the parent thunderstorm was not characterized by severe indicators in reflectivity and velocity Doppler radar data, however, explosive development was noted within the next ten to fifteen minutes prior to the following events. No damage was reported.
Nickel size hail was reported along Farm to Market 1450.
The parent thunderstorm that produced the previous tornado event began to show evidence of explosive development, including a well defined Weak Echo Region and a weak mesocyclone. This storm's development was likely enhanced as relatively weaker convection interacted with a westward moving outflow boundary. Numerous reports were received of a tornado southeast of Pecos. This tornado was located in rural areas east of Toyah Lake and just south of Farm to Market Road 1450. No damage was reported.
Nickel size hail was reported along Interstate 20.
The Texas Department of Public Safety reported flooding of Farm to Market Road 1450 just east of Pecos.
Flash flooding resulted in running water flowing over State Highway 302 west of Kermit.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Texas, 2004Warnings in Texas, June 2004
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: 5405284, 5405285, 5405286, 5405287, 5405283, 5405195, 5405194, 5405200, 5405199, 5405201, 5405193, 5405198, 5405196, 5405197.