A wide variety of weather across West Texas on May 21, 2008. High-based thunderstorms produced virga that caused wind damage across Cochran, Terry, Hockley, and Lubbock counties during the evening hours. Peak WTM wind gust was 71 mph at Sundown 8 miles WSW at 8:40 pm CDT. Wind gusts to 65 mph were common in Lubbock County from two different virga showers. Gravity waves from decaying thunderstorms also passed through the WTM domain during the early morning hours. The gravity wave train was very impressive in mesonet pressure and wind data.

Hockley County virga shower at 9:05 CDT. Looking southwest from 6 miles northwest of Ropesville. Credit: WTM.

The high-based storms also generated several heatbursts. Click on the thumbnail for a meteogram from the Northfield 1S WTM station (add one hour for daylight savings).

Gravity waves from thunderstorm outflow propagated through the West Texas Mesonet domain during the early morning hours of May 21, 2008. The following images are from the TTU WISE 200-meter tower at Reese Center during the gravity wave event. Pressure and wind data are shown for different levels on the tower. Click on the thumbnails for a full-sized image. Credit: Frank Lombardo, TTU IGERT.

Also available are a KLBB Radar Base Reflectivity Loop and a KLBB Radar Base Radial Velocity Loop (both are large, 3MB) for the period 2-6 AM CDT.

Many West Texas Mesonet stations sampled the "WAVE TRAIN". Meteograms are in standard time (add one hour for daylight savings). Click on the thumbnails for a full-sized image.