Thunderstorms brought hail up to half dollar size and strong wind gusts across mainly the eastern Texas Panhandle late on the 13th.
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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 AMA wrote it up.
Thunderstorms brought hail up to half dollar size and strong wind gusts across mainly the eastern Texas Panhandle late on the 13th.
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 May 13, 2:37 PM CST, 41 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Amarillo TX 337 PM CDT FRI MAY 13 2016 .Short Term...through tonight Latest surface analysis shows the cold front moving southward through western Kansas. AWOS at Syracuse, KS suggests the front has moved through that location recently. Further south, a surface trough extended from near Beaver to just north of Dumas and Tucumcari. This boundary has moved slowly southeast and short term guidance suggests it will continue to do so until being overtaken by the cold front later this evening. Visible satellite imagery shows some enhancement of cumulus field and some CB now southeast of this boundary with cu nearly absent along it. Weak convergence through the late afternoon has been enough to focus convective initiation in an increasingly unstable environment with MLCAPE of around 2,000 J/kg. This combined with effective shear of around 35 knots should support organized storms including supercells and the potential for large hail and damaging winds. Despite weak convergence and increasing cumulus field, visual observations of the cumulus are that it has very little vertical extent, and water vapor loop suggests large scale subsidence may largely suppress activity. Thunderstorms may still develop but coverage should be limited through the afternoon and into the early evening. Difficult forecast for overnight. We lowered precipitation probabilities slightly given the conditionality of this setup. Shallow front should traverse most of the forecast area this evening. Most models saturate 305k isentropic surface north of the front by around or shortly after 06z and give a fairly healthy QPF signal late tonight toward morning, although this spatially varies from model to model. QPF tends to over perform in these post frontal scenarios, probably mostly due to shallow depth well below the LFC. Low-level moist advection has been relatively robust today though, and soundings saturate through a fairly deep layer, so this will probably be sufficient for at least some convection later tonight. Confidence would be higher if significant large scale ascent was present. Mid-level heights fall only slightly as mean ridging slowly deamplifies overnight, but the main impetus for convection would be the ascent above the southward moving front as described above. Water vapor loop shows no evidence of upstream small scale perturbations to help out either. We will continue to monitor trends. BRB && .Long Term...Saturday through next Friday Off and on precip chances will litter the long term. Unfortunately, picking through the litter to find the most likely periods is a difficult process at this time. Aloft...a seasonally strong Ontario/Hudson Bay upr low will spin slowly up the St. Lawrence Seaway early next week as an upr low settles into the Intermountain West. This leaves the southern Great Plains in an area of relatively weak wrly upr flow with subtle height rises and falls as weak speed maxes ripple through. Picking out timing on these weak waves at this point would be mostly futile, however a few windows look a little more interesting than others. At the surface, the significant cold front advertised in the short term section will settle south of the area Saturday and much of Sunday...meaning this weekend will feel more like March than May. After slightly warmer weather on Monday...another cold front will come through Tuesday, keeping the midweek period cool before southerly low level flow finally returns to warm us late in the week. Elevated instability will be present through this weekend. Shear profiles don't favor widespread svr wx on Saturday, but Sunday could yield us a few hailers given such low frz levels and cool sfc temps. Monday may have the most robust svr potential due to better flow aloft and shear profiles but also the highest likelihood that ingredients don't all come together. Medium range model trends have been toward a more moist bndry layer Monday and slower sfc trough passage, so this will need to be monitored. Thunderstorms will be possible along the cold front on Tuesday as well, with some severe potential given solid mid lvl lapse rates and modest mid lvl flow. The overall pattern appears to favor good moisture return to the Panhandles moving forward in the extended, which should mean more rain/severe chances through much of May. Simpson && .Preliminary Point Temps/Pops... Amarillo TX 45 56 44 56 50 / 40 40 50 50 40 Beaver OK 45 57 44 55 48 / 10 20 50 50 50 Boise City OK 41 57 43 57 48 / 20 20 40 40 50 Borger TX 46 57 45 57 51 / 40 30 50 50 40 Boys Ranch TX 46 58 46 61 51 / 40 20 40 40 40 Canyon TX 46 57 45 58 50 / 40 40 40 50 40 Clarendon TX 47 57 45 56 49 / 40 50 50 50 40 Dalhart TX 44 56 45 61 49 / 40 20 40 40 50 Guymon OK 44 57 45 58 49 / 20 20 50 40 50 Hereford TX 49 60 47 62 52 / 40 40 40 50 40 Lipscomb TX 46 56 45 56 49 / 30 30 50 50 50 Pampa TX 45 54 44 57 49 / 40 40 50 50 40 Shamrock TX 48 57 45 57 50 / 40 60 50 50 50 Wellington TX 50 59 47 58 51 / 40 50 50 60 50 && .AMA Watches/Warnings/Advisories... TX...NONE. OK...NONE. && 17/9
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX 341 PM CDT FRI MAY 13 2016 OKZ001>003-TXZ001>020-141200- CIMARRON-TEXAS-BEAVER-DALLAM-SHERMAN-HANSFORD-OCHILTREE-LIPSCOMB- HARTLEY-MOORE-HUTCHINSON-ROBERTS-HEMPHILL-OLDHAM-POTTER-CARSON- GRAY-WHEELER-DEAF SMITH-RANDALL-ARMSTRONG-DONLEY-COLLINGSWORTH- 341 PM CDT FRI MAY 13 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT ACROSS MUCH OF THE PANHANDLES. A FEW STORMS MAY BE SEVERE WITH LARGE HAIL THE MAIN THREAT. THERE IS A SMALL RISK FOR FLASH FLOODING AND DAMAGING WINDS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. AT THIS TIME IT APPEARS THAT SEVERE WEATHER CHANCES ARE PRETTY LOW. THOUGH MUCH UNCERTAINTY REMAINS...THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR A MORE ORGANIZED AND WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER EPISODE ON MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING WITH ALL MODES OF SEVERE WEATHER POSSIBLE. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED THESE DAYS, BUT A FEW SEVERE STORMS COULD BE POSSIBLE. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS REQUESTED THIS AFTERNOON.
The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:16 UTC.
10 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Quarter size hail fell on Highway 83, 5 miles north of Wheeler. No significant hail accumulation was noted, although minor street flooding occurred in Wheeler.
Quarter size hail fell in Wheeler. No significant hail accumulation occurred.
Quarter size hail was reported 6 miles southwest of Allison.
Quarter size hail was reported two miles east of Wheeler.
Half dollar size hail fell 7 miles west-southwest of Kellerville. The hail accumulated up to an inch deep.
One inch hail fell in Wheeler.
Quarter size hail was reported 1 mile north-northwest of Shamrock, with no accumulation.
One inch hail fell in Wheeler.
Penny size hail was reported in White Deer.
Report of a wind gust of 60 mph 2 to 3 miles south of Samnorwood on Highway 83.
Tree limbs 4 inch in diameter down as well as multiple smaller branches. Damage was blown to the west. This occurred 3 miles north of Wellington.
Hail up to half dollar size covered the ground about a mile east of Dodson on County Road 338.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, May 2016
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: 637092, 637093, 637100, 637095, 637094, 637097, 637096, 637098, 637099, 637103, 637104, 637102.