Power Outage in Whitharral, TX

Thunderstorm Wind. Extensive wind damage to power poles were reported from Whitharral to Anton associated with the leading edge of a severe thunderstorm. The towns of Whitharral and Anton were reported to be without power due to the damage. Additionally, a Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site near Anton measured severe wind gusts from 2348 CST through 0004 CST. A peak wind gust of 61 mph was measured at 2353 CST and again at 0001 CST.

May 24, 2023

A powerful storm system dropped out of the southern Rockies on the 24th. This system strengthened over northern Chihuahua on the 25th, then ejected northeastward across the Permian Basin and into North Texas on the 26th. The bulk of the precipitation in the morning of the 25th was focused across the Permian Basin though steady rain did edge northward into the southern South Plains and Rolling Plains. The rain mixed with sleet and snow at times across parts of the Caprock as temperatures hovered in the middle 30s. The precipitation did fully change to snow at times across the western and southwestern South Plains, where light accumulations occurred.||Total snow accumulations from National Weather Service cooperative weather observers:||2.0 inches at Levelland (Hockley County),|1.5 inches at Plains (Yoakum County), and|1.0 inch at Denver City (Yoakum County).

November 25, 2022

Tornado. A cyclic tornadic supercell produced several tornadoes over a period of approximately two hours. An NWS storm survey revealed that this supercell produced nine separate tornadoes. This tornado was the ninth and final tornado. The NWS storm survey team discovered several locations along Farm to Market Road 303 with wooden power poles snapped at the base and two pump jacks overturned. Maximum winds were estimated at 120 mph. The instantaneous width and center of the tornado was estimated from TTU-Kal radar data.

May 23, 2022

Tornado. A cyclic tornadic supercell produced several tornadoes over a period of approximately two hours. An NWS storm survey revealed that this supercell produced nine separate tornadoes. This tornado was the fifth tornado. Numerous storm chasers documented a brief, small tornado in an open field. Wooden power poles were blown down at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 597 and 303, approximately two miles south of Pep. Maximum winds were estimated at 85 mph.

May 23, 2022

A strong upper level low moved from northern New Mexico across the Texas Panhandle during the day of the tenth. Strong daytime heating and deep mixing tapped into a low-level jet associated with the passing system. The winds were further enhanced along and immediately behind a Pacific cold front that raced from west to east across the South Plains through the mid to late afternoon hours. The peak wind gusts at most locations occurred immediately behind the Pacific front, when several sites recorded gusts in excess of 58 mph. Although the most intense gusts didn't last long, they did loft copious amounts of dust. Near Morton (Cochran County) a large tree was blown over which brought down several power lines. North of a stationary front, and closer to where the center of the mid-upper level system emerged, scattered showers and isolated storms developed during the afternoon. One more intense storm did provide brief heavy rain as it moved by just north of Muleshoe bringing wind gusts to 60 mph.||Peak high wind gusts from the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet are below:||73 mph at Amherst (Lamb County), 65 mph at O'Donnell (Lynn County), 64 mph at Graham (Garza County), 62 mph at Brownfield (Terry County), 61 mph at Sundown (Cochran County), 60 mph at Levelland (Hockley County), and 58 mph at Anton (Hockley County).

October 10, 2021