South Plains sees widespread rainfall

Tuesday afternoon and evening saw the first widespread significant rainfall on the South Plains region this year, with many areas seeing more than 1 inch of precipitation along with reports of large hail and strong winds, according to the National Weather Service in Lubbock.

The precipitation came with numerous severe wind gusts and pockets of hail, as is common for May on the southern High Plains. The thunderstorms that provided the much-needed rain were triggered along/near a dryline, with the help of strong daytime heating and a weak upper level disturbance ejecting northward out of Mexico.

Wind gusts near and in excess of 60 mph were first measured by the West Texas Mesonet around Morton, Amherst (where 1" diameter hail was also observed) and Dimmitt, according to the weather service.

The intense winds lofted copious amounts of dust, and produced several haboobs that swept across the region.

The thunderstorms gradually evolved into a solid line and tracked eastward across much of the South Plains, Rolling Plains and southern Texas Panhandle through the mid-late evening hours.

The showers and thunderstorms gradually diminished and shifted off into western Oklahoma after midnight, but not before dropping widespread rainfall. Rain totals of 1/2 inch to 1.5 inches were common from the southwest South Plains through the central and northeast South Plains and into eastern Texas Panhandle. Officially, Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport recorded 0.71 of an inch of rain, which more than doubled the year-to-date total to 1.29 inches. Even after this rainfall, Lubbock is still 3.12 inches below the average year-to-date total of 4.41 inches.