Unfortunate for many Fourth of July revelers, yet another large squall line developed this evening in the southwest Texas Panhandle and proceeded to overspread all of the Caprock and portions of the Rolling Plains through the night. Numerous severe wind gusts, widespread blowing dust and torrential downpours accompanied this squall line at times.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 LUB wrote it up.
Unfortunate for many Fourth of July revelers, yet another large squall line developed this evening in the southwest Texas Panhandle and proceeded to overspread all of the Caprock and portions of the Rolling Plains through the night. Numerous severe wind gusts, widespread blowing dust and torrential downpours accompanied this squall line at times. Sporadic wind damage was most concentrated in parts of Lamb County. These storms forced many city and private individuals to cancel or reschedule their fireworks festivities, with Lubbock unable to perform their festival show until July 16.
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 Lubbock, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 4, 5:20 PM CST, 40 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Lubbock TX 620 PM CDT Tue Jul 4 2017 .AVIATION... VFR conditions in place all three TAF sites. Developing line of storms will move through the TAF sites later this evening and confidence is fairly high on the timing. May need to tweak start and end times some but expect strong gusty wind with the storm arrival. After the storms depart, skies will return to VFR with a light and variable wind. There may be a few isolated storms overnight but confidence is too low to include. VFR conditions will then continue through the day Wednesday. Jordan && .PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 353 PM CDT Tue Jul 4 2017/ DISCUSSION... Our expected thunderstorm complex tonight is already starting to take shape across northeast NM at 330 pm. Scattered t-storms developing in that area are expected to gradually organize as they approach our northwest counties by 7 pm or so. The developing south-southeasterly low-level jet this evening will help these storms grow upscale this evening into a MCS which should march south-southeastward through much of the forecast area, finally exiting to the south and east early Wednesday morning. Winds aloft are pretty modest...although not bad for July...but deep-layer shear will improve some as the LLJ kicks in. MUCAPEs are progged to be in the 1000-1500 J/kg range and will support a severe wind gust threat along with perhaps an isolated large hail threat early on. A localized flooding threat may also materialize given the saturated soil across parts of the area and PWATS running around 1 to 1.5 inches across the area. After tonight's activity it looks like we will have one more day of storm chances before an upper-level ridge building over the 4-corners area begins to exert more influence for a while. In fact, our storm chances on Wednesday do not look very promising as slightly cooler temperatures should keep the area a little more stable locally, while upper-flow turning more north-northeasterly will keep the activity in NM pinned to the higher terrain. We may look for any boundary left over from the overnight complex to help overcome any inhibition late Wed. Precip. chances should be low Thursday and Friday as we undergo a warming and drying trend. The temperature rebound may be tempered somewhat by the moist soil, especially if we get widespread rainfall tonight. The GFS and ECMWF both suggest that a weakness could develop in the east side of the ridge by Saturday which could temporarily shift the steering winds to the N-NW and give a little better chance for storms to make it into the area late Saturday and possibly into Sunday. The ridge broadens over much of the western and central U.S. early next week which should keep precipitation chances low and keep temps near or slightly above average. && .LUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && 14/99/14
Hazardous Weather Outlook...UPDATED National Weather Service Lubbock TX 1056 AM CDT Tue Jul 4 2017 TXZ021>044-051600- Parmer-Castro-Swisher-Briscoe-Hall-Childress-Bailey-Lamb-Hale- Floyd-Motley-Cottle-Cochran-Hockley-Lubbock-Crosby-Dickens-King- Yoakum-Terry-Lynn-Garza-Kent-Stonewall- 1056 AM CDT Tue Jul 4 2017 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the South Plains...Rolling Plains and the far Southern Texas Panhandle. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight Isolated thunderstorms are possible late this afternoon and early evening across the South Plains, mainly to the south and west of highway 84. This evening and overnight, a complex of thunderstorms is expected to move southeast across much of the forecast area. A few of these storms have the potential to be severe with wind gusts to 65 mph and hail to one inch in diameter. In addition, some locally heavy rainfall is possible, especially in the Rolling Plains later tonight. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday Thunderstorm chances continue Wednesday and Wednesday night, though coverage and intensity will be less than recent days. By Thursday, drier weather is expected across the region. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation may be requested late this afternoon and tonight.
The Cannon AFB radar (KFDX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:02 UTC.
11 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Friona.
Hail from pea to dime size fell near the Kent County Sheriff's Office, with half dollar size hail falling a few blocks distant at a NWS COOP observer's house. No damage was reported.
A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Dimmitt measured gusts to 70 mph at 1835 CST and 60 mph at 1845 CST.
Broadcast media relayed reports of a wall of dust with damaging winds in Springlake. Damage was mostly light and confined to small tree limbs and fencing.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Hart.
A series of downbursts tracked south through portions of Lamb County accompanied by a wall of dust. These winds overturned a few center pivots along Highway 385 between Springlake and Littlefield. Winds were measured as high as 64 mph at 1920 CST by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Amherst. Another mesonet near Olton measured wind gusts to 62 mph and 59 mph at 1914 CST and 1935 CST, respectively.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Morton.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Sundown.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Levelland.
Downburst winds of 58 mph were recorded at the Lubbock ASOS at 2011 CST, and also at a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Wolfforth at 2035 CST. A wall of dust ahead of these winds briefly dropped visibility to near zero across rural areas of Lubbock County.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Aiken.
Measured by a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet near Tahoka.
Moderate to heavy rain for about 20 minutes fell across west and southwest areas of Lubbock and resulted in widespread street flooding. Some intersections remained flooded the following morning with a few inches of standing water.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, July 2017
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: 699692, 699693, 699694, 699696, 699698, 699699, 699702, 699704, 699705, 699706, 699707, 699709, 699712.