Name: Heavy Rain in Texas, July 20, 2013
Start: 2013-07-20T12:00
End: 2013-07-20T15:00
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

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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 happened

The episode as NWS AMA wrote it up.

Scattered showers developed across the Texas Panhandle along residual outflow boundaries from early morning storms during the early afternoon hours of the 20th. Precipitable Water values across the Texas Panhandle were climatologically high for late July and supplied storms with high water content. These storms produced brief periods of heavy rain which lead to localized flooding of flood prone areas. The storms moved out of the Texas Panhandle by the late 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 Jul 20, 10:57 AM CST, 1 hour 3 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 20, 10:57 AM CST, 1 hour 3 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1157 AM CDT SAT JUL 20 2013

.AVIATION...
18Z TAF CYCLE
CONVECTION CHANCES INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT ACROSS ALL
THREE TAF SITES...MAINLY AFTER 20Z TO 22Z TODAY. WILL INCLUDE A VCTS
IN THE PREVAILING GROUP AT ALL THREE TAF SITES AND A TEMPO GROUP FOR
THE POSSIBILITY FOR THE CONVECTION AFFECTING THE TAF SITES THROUGH
ABOUT 02Z SUNDAY. OTHERWISE...VFR CONDITIONS WILL PREVAIL WITH
SOUTHERLY TO SOUTHWESTERLY WINDS 10 TO 20 KNOTS WITH SOME OCCASIONAL
GUSTS THROUGH 00Z SUNDAY...THEN 5 TO 15 KNOTS AFTER 00Z SUNDAY.

SCHNEIDER

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 627 AM CDT SAT JUL 20 2013/

UPDATE...
MORNING GRIDDED POPS HAVE BEEN RECONFIGURED. THE HIGHEST RAIN/STORM
CHANCES /30 PERCENT/ HAVE BEEN DRAWN OVER THE EASTERN OKLAHOMA
PANHANDLE AND NORTHEASTERN TEXAS PANHANDLE IN PROXIMITY TO A
CIRCULATION SEEN IN RADAR MOSAIC OVER SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. MORE
ISOLATED SHOWERS/STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO PROGRESS SOUTHEASTWARD FROM
THE VICINITY OF PALO DURO CANYON.

AVIATION...
THE IMMEDIATE THREAT OF THUNDERSTORMS HAS DECREASED AT BOTH KAMA AND
KGUY TERMINALS. SCATTERED TO BROKEN CLOUDS WILL GENERALLY PERSIST IN
THE 5-10 KFT HEIGHT RANGE. CONFIDENCE FOR RENEWED CONVECTION IN
PROXIMITY TO THE KGUY AND KDHT TERMINALS IS SUFFICIENT ENOUGH TO
WARRANT VCTS AFTER 18-20Z. WILL NEED TO MONITOR TRENDS FOR POTENTIAL
VISIBILITY RESTRICTIONS SHOULD STORMS DIRECTLY IMPACT THOSE SITES
THIS AFTERNOON...BUT WILL NOT INCLUDE SUCH MENTION ATTM. OTHERWISE...
LOWER CONFIDENCE FOR STORMS EXIST FOR KAMA...AND HAS BEEN OMITTED
THERE FOR THIS UPDATE.

PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 325 AM CDT SAT JUL 20 2013/

DISCUSSION...
AN MCV WAS FOUND NEAR GCK THIS MORNING. AN OUTFLOW BOUNDARY WAS
MOVING SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST HALF OF THE TEXAS PANHANDLE.
BOTH OF THESE FEATURES HAVE HELPED SPARK SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
ACROSS THE SOUTHERN AND EASTERN CWA EARLY THIS MORNING. BELIEVE THAT
THE ACTIVITY OVER THE EASTERN OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE AND NORTHEAST TEXAS
PANHANDLE MAY LAST THE LONGEST AS THE KANSAS MCV MOVES SLOWLY SOUTH.
THE ACTIVITY IN THE SOUTHERN TEXAS PANHANDLE ALONG THE OUTFLOW
BOUNDARY SHOULD WANE LATER THIS MORNING AS THE LOW LEVEL JET
DECREASES.

ANOTHER ROUND OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD MOVE INTO THE
NORTHWEST CWA FROM COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO THIS AFTERNOON AND
TONIGHT. THE ACTIVITY WILL LIKELY SPREAD ACROSS ALL OF THE OKLAHOMA
PANHANDLE AND NORTHERN TEXAS PANHANDLE AGAIN.

THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE EDGES EVER SO SLIGHTLY EASTWARD THROUGH NEXT
WEEK...SO MUCH OF THE SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY SHOULD BE
SHUNTED TO THE NORTH OF THE CWA. HOWEVER... WE WILL REMAIN IN A
LIGHT NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT...SO IF SOME SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
CAN GET GOING CLOSER TO HOME...SUCH AS THE RATON MESA...THEN WE MAY
SEE SOME RAIN IN THE NORTHWEST ON ANY ONE OF THESE DAYS THROUGH THE
REST OF THE FORECAST. THIS IS PROBABLY BETTER HANDLED ON A DAY TO
DAY BASIS INSTEAD OF SPREADING POPS ACROSS THIS AREA FOR SEVERAL
DAYS NOW.

FIRE WEATHER...
NO ELEVATED OR CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. THE LOWEST AFTERNOON RELATIVE
HUMIDITY VALUES MAY GET DOWN TO BELOW 20 PERCENT IN THE NORTHWEST CWA
MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY...BUT THIS IS WHERE THE LIGHTER WINDS
WILL BE.

&&

.AMA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
TX...NONE.
OK...NONE.

&&

11/05

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 20, 9:58 AM CST, 2 hours 2 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1058 AM CDT SAT JUL 20 2013

OKZ001>003-TXZ001>020-202100-
CIMARRON-TEXAS-BEAVER-DALLAM-SHERMAN-HANSFORD-OCHILTREE-LIPSCOMB-
HARTLEY-MOORE-HUTCHINSON-ROBERTS-HEMPHILL-OLDHAM-POTTER-CARSON-
GRAY-WHEELER-DEAF SMITH-RANDALL-ARMSTRONG-DONLEY-COLLINGSWORTH-
1058 AM CDT SAT JUL 20 2013

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA
PANHANDLES.

.DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE PANHANDLES THIS AFTERNOON
THROUGH TONIGHT. THE MAIN HAZARDS WITH THESE STORMS WILL BE
LIGHTNING...STRONG GUSTY WINDS...AND ISOLATED AREAS OF HEAVY RAINFALL
WHICH COULD LEAD TO LOCALIZED FLOODING.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME.

SCHNEIDER

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Rain, Hemphill

When: July 20, 12:00 PM CST to 3:00 PM CST
Where: Hemphill County, 2.5 mi N of Canadian Hemphill Ar to 0.61 mi SSE of Canadian
Reported by: Broadcast Media
Coordinates: 35.936, -100.407

An isolated thunderstorm briefly intensified over Hemphill County during the early afternoon hours of the 20th. The storm collapsed upon it's own updraft and produced a brief period of heavy rain. A local TV station film crew reported that low-lying areas near the city of Canadian (Hemphill County) experienced minor flooding. The flooding was not significant enough to cause traffic to stop. No swift water rescues or stranded motorist were reported in association to this flooding.

What these are

Heavy Rain: Rainfall totals unusual for the place and season that did not produce a flood.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Texas in 2013 Every state in 2013 This day in weather history Warnings in Texas, July 2013

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: 468564.