Flood and Damaging Winds in Texas, October 21 to 22, 2015

A slow-moving upper low in Arizona helped spread unseasonably rich moisture and strong upper diffluence over all of eastern New Mexico and West Texas from the 21st through the 22nd. Multiple rounds of scattered showers and storms spread north during the day on the 21st before strong lift arrived from New Mexico late in the evening in the form of a squall line. This large complex of storms crawled slowly east over the South Plains and Rolling Plains during the overnight hours accompanied by heavy rainfall rates at times; however, the majority of the heavy rain amounts of 1.5 to three inches and subsequent minor flooding were attributed more to the long duration of the precipitation event which limited the severity of flooding. Only one road closure due to flooding was logged by TXDOT. Isolated severe wind gusts accompanied the squall line over the South Plains, but one severe thunderstorm well ahead of this line of storms impacted far northeast Childress County where several power poles were felled. By far, the greatest impact of this event was dealt to regional cotton farmers who would suffer a moderate financial toll due to deteriorated cotton quality. This rainfall did alleviate short term drought conditions region wide, particularly in the Rolling Plains where D2 (severe) and D3 (extreme) drought levels were abated by two to four inches of rain.