A active severe weather day across West Texas on 23 April 2008. Elevated storms produced a variety of severe weather across the Panhandle and South Plains regions. Several supercell thunderstorms propagated eastward on a warm front located across the northern Permian Basin. At least one supercell produced a significant tornado south of Lamesa during the late afternoon. Pictures and damage reports follow. Credits are Dave Kook, Texas Tech West Texas Mesonet unless specified.

Tornado in southern Dawson County near Sparenberg (northwest of Ackerly). Estimated time is 3:52pm. Looking northeast from the Martin/Dawson County line southeast of Patricia.

Hail covering FM828 north of Patricia in Dawson County (before first tornado).

First sighting of tornado from a distance. Tornado located between Patricia and Ackerly. Tornado was on ground approximately 3:50 to 3:57 pm CDT.

Sparenberg tornado roping out with old mesocyclone.

New funnel forming northwest of Ackerly. Time estimated around 4:05 pm. No tornado touchdown observed.

One of the many large hailstones that fell across the southern sections of Lamesa (location near the golf course). Largest hailstone found measured 3.5 inches in diameter. Photo credit: Russel Skiles, Lamesa Press-Reporter.

Hail impact craters in a cotton field just south of Lamesa. The field was flooded with heavy rain from first storm. Impressive coverage of impact craters five days after the storm. Photo credit: John Lipe, NWS Lubbock.

One of the larger impact craters. Photo credit: John Lipe, NWS Lubbock.

Another supercell along the boundary around 6:15 pm in southern Dawson/northern Martin County. Looking west/northwest from northwest of Big Spring. Credit: Pat Skinner - TTU Atmospheric Science

Same beautiful storm with different angle. Credit: Pat Skinner - TTU Atmospheric Science

Last supercell northwest of Westbrook in Mitchell County around 7pm.

The base reflectivity image on the left from the Lubbock NWS radar shows a downburst in Anton. The base reflectivity image on the right from the Midland NWS radar shows ongoing Permian Basin supercell thunderstorms (right). Click on the images for reflectivity loops.

Several West Texas Mesonet stations sampled portions of the severe thunderstorms that passed through the area. Several meteograms are displayed below. Click on the thumbnails for a full-sized image.

ANTON 6SSW: This station was hit by a downburst at 11:45 am CDT. Peak wind gust was 67 mph.

LAMESA 2SE: This station was impacted by several supercells during the afternoon. Golfball to baseball-size hail was reported near the station on two different storms. Main tornado was 14 miles south-southeast.

GAIL 2SE: Heavy rain and hail impacted the station. Station was hit with hail and severe winds (62 mph gust) by a mid-day supercell thunderstorm and then brushed by two different supercells in the afternoon.

FLUVANNA 3W: Heavy rain and hail impacted the station all afternoon. Heavy flooding in and around Fluvanna.

SNYDER 3E: Tornadic supercell hit the west part of Snyder around 3pm CDT. Wind gust to 69 mph at 3:10 pm CDT from the same storm (straight-line winds).

SEMINOLE 2N: Gaines County was the source region for several supercell thunderstorms. The last two storms impacted the Seminole station with penny-size hail.