A moist and unstable air mass supported the development of scattered thunderstorms late this day over much of the region. One of these storms produced a short lived landspout over open land on the outskirts of south Lubbock.
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The episode as NWS LUB wrote it up.
A moist and unstable air mass supported the development of scattered thunderstorms late this day over much of the region. One of these storms produced a short lived landspout over open land on the outskirts of south Lubbock.
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 Sep 2, 2:01 PM CST, 1 hour 56 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Lubbock TX 301 PM CDT Sun Sep 2 2018 .DISCUSSION... Instability over much of the South Plains this afternoon was next to nil thanks to a stubborn layer of mid clouds. CAPE values on either side of these clouds were improving nicely as temps soared into the 80s and 90s, with instability generally AOA 1000 J/kg in the Rolling Plains and also in portions of eastern NM. Although visible satellite shows a well defined MCV curling north from the Fort Stockton vicinity, this vorticity maximum may be a moot point for storms as remains over largely stable air for the rest of the daytime hours. Expectation is for isolated storms to focus mainly off the Caprock through the evening hours, with a second area likely organizing in southeast NM ahead of a minor upper trough. This latter feature should bolster scattered-to-numerous storms near the TX-NM state line by early evening, although the eastward extent thereafter is less clear now given large spread among CAMs and operational models. Considering that operational models now show no real development of the LLJ tonight, PoPs were scaled lower about 10-20% area wide which is generally in sync with the latest HREF mean. Labor Day still looks to feature the best and most widespread rain chances for the week. Much of this appears tied to a meridional 200 mb upper jet streak that migrates slowly east across the Panhandle and South Plains through the day. This will subject the CWA to enhanced upper divergence given the long residence time of the right entrance region to the upper jet. Farther down, tropospheric winds throughout most of the deep warm layer are progged to remain weak, so storm motions should be 10 knots or less. Add to this PWATs averaging around 1.5 inches and the stage will certainly be set for heavy rain and some flooding at times. PoPs tomorrow were reshaped more toward the better agreement shown by the HREF, TTU-WRF, WPC guidance, and the NAM. This yields a preference for the heaviest rain to target areas over the eastern 2/3rds of the forecast area. Confidence is still not high enough to warrant a Flood Watch as flooding in these non-tropical and/or non-frontal regimes often ends up being too abbreviated in size and duration. Southwesterly mid-level winds will trend less cyclonic on Tuesday, but more importantly the moist axis aloft is progged to nudge more eastward as upper troughing shallows out to our west. This theme was given some credit with a small reduction in PoPs on the Caprock both Tue and Wed. Nontheless, PWATs will remain well above climatology region wide with little/no CINH in the afternoon, so despite lackluster QPF signals on the operational models at times, we'll keep fair chances intact every day. A decaying cold front by late Wednesday may still enhance rain chances briefly over the area until mid-level winds turn more westerly and slowly reduce PWATs and PoPs area wide by the end of the week and especially into the weekend. && .LUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && 93
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Lubbock TX 332 AM CDT Sun Sep 2 2018 TXZ021>044-022045- Parmer-Castro-Swisher-Briscoe-Hall-Childress-Bailey-Lamb-Hale- Floyd-Motley-Cottle-Cochran-Hockley-Lubbock-Crosby-Dickens-King- Yoakum-Terry-Lynn-Garza-Kent-Stonewall- 332 AM CDT Sun Sep 2 2018 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the South Plains, Rolling Plains and the far Southern Texas Panhandle. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight The probability of hazardous weather is low. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Monday through Saturday Periods of moderate to heavy rain with occasional flooding are possible from Labor Day through Thursday.
The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:56 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Many residents of south Lubbock observed a landspout over open land near 114th Street and Highway 87 drifting slowly north. No known damage accompanied this tornado, therefore an EF-Unknown rating was assigned.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Texas, 2018Warnings in Texas, September 2018
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: 772550.