Another afternoon of isolated thunderstorms developed under very hot conditions and an approaching weak short wave trough. A cold front moved through the Texas Panhandle and stalled out from the western South Plains into the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle.
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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 LUB wrote it up.
Another afternoon of isolated thunderstorms developed under very hot conditions and an approaching weak short wave trough. A cold front moved through the Texas Panhandle and stalled out from the western South Plains into the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle. Thunderstorms initially developed along this boundary but with very dry sub-cloud layers, these thunderstorms were efficient strong wind producers. Several storms generated severe wind gusts including a wet microburst near Flomot (Motley County) producing a wind gust of 90 mph.
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 Aug 15, 1:13 PM CST, 1 hour earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Lubbock TX 213 PM CDT Thu Aug 15 2024 ...New SHORT TERM, LONG TERM... .SHORT TERM... (This evening through Friday) Issued at 127 PM CDT Thu Aug 15 2024 Thunderstorm chances in the near term and heat tomorrow are the foci for the forecast this afternoon. Surface features early this afternoon include a weak cold front draped across the northern Texas Panhandle and northwestern Oklahoma while a surface trough or remnant outflow boundary extends from the northeastern Texas Panhandle through the northwestern South Plains. Either or both of these features may serve as a focus for convective initiation late this afternoon as the air mass is progged to be weakly capped, although some subsidence is evident in the progged soundings but also in water vapor imagery as monsoonal moisture appears to be thinning and shifting to the south and southeast. CAMs continue to show the greatest concentration of storms across the southeastern half of the Panhandle where both boundaries could come into play while an extension to the southwest with more isolated convection is plausible. The previous forecast handled this well and no changes to weather/precip grids were made. Upper level ridging to the west expand eastward on Friday with a small increase in progged heights and thicknesses pointing to high temperatures about two degrees warmer on average than today in line with MOS and NBM. This will likely lead to the need for a Heat Advisory for at least the northeastern part of the forecast area with the hottest temperatures expected along and near the Prairie Dog Town Fork with areas southward through the Rolling Plains not as certain. Will let the overnight shift fine tune the forecast and settle on the configuration of the product. && .LONG TERM... (Friday night through next Wednesday) Issued at 127 PM CDT Thu Aug 15 2024 There is not much to say in regards to the long term forecast other than it is going to be abnormally hot for August. An omega blocking pattern will set up over the CONUS with the upper ridge centered over the Southern Plains. The center of the ridge will meander over the Southern Plains for at least the next week. This will bring hot temperatures for the next week and into possibly heat warning criteria for the Rolling Plains. Current probabilities from the NBM show around a ten percent chance of meeting or exceeding 110F off the caprock for Tuesday and Wednesday. Looking beyond next week, ensemble guidance does begin to diverge with regards to the strength of the ridge but generally keep the ridge centered over the four corners into the Southern Plains through the end of August. Therefore, chances do not bode well for any type of significant cool down in the foreseeable future. && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1212 PM CDT Thu Aug 15 2024 A weak surface trough extending from the eastern Texas Panhandle through the northwestern South Plains to east-central New Mexico will likely help focus some isolated to potentially scattered TS development later this afternoon which will persist into the evening hours. It still appears the greatest concentration of TS will be across the eastern Panhandle, but confidence in timing, areal extent, and evolution remain low. Will keep TS mention out of the TAFs at this time, but that may need to change even before the 00Z issuance. Otherwise, VFR conditions will continue. Check density altitude. && .LUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && SHORT TERM...07 LONG TERM....01 AVIATION...07
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Lubbock TX 234 AM CDT Thu Aug 15 2024 TXZ021>044-160745- Parmer-Castro-Swisher-Briscoe-Hall-Childress-Bailey-Lamb-Hale-Floyd- Motley-Cottle-Cochran-Hockley-Lubbock-Crosby-Dickens-King-Yoakum- Terry-Lynn-Garza-Kent-Stonewall- 234 AM CDT Thu Aug 15 2024 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the South Plains, Rolling Plains, and the far Southern Texas Panhandle. .DAY ONE...Today and tonight. Isolated to scattered thunderstorms will develop this afternoon and evening, especially in the far southeast Texas Panhandle. Locally heavy rain and wind gusts around 60 mph will be possible with some of these storms. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Friday through Wednesday. High temperatures in excess of 105 degrees are forecast for most of the Rolling Plains for this upcoming weekend, and may reach 110 degrees by early next week across the Rolling Plains.
The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:11 UTC.
3 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site near Guthrie measured severe wind gusts from 1413 CST through 1414 CST. A peak wind gust of 63 mph was measured at 1413 CST.
A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site near Flomot measured severe wind gusts from 1743 CST through 1750 CST. A peak wind gust of 90 mph was measured at 1744 CST.
A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site in Smyer measured a severe wind gust of 69 mph.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, August 2024
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: 1193466, 1193468, 1193467.