LEVELLAND – Irma Reyes said she woke up to the sound of rain and the lights flickering in her Levelland trailer home around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Then she heard and felt the 100-plus-mph winds.
“It sounded like a train,” Reyes said. “It came and busted my windows. You could just hear it.”
The roof of her home was blown clean off and landed in her neighbor’s yard. Then Reyes said she could hear people yelling across the street, but didn’t know what was happening — that she didn’t even have time to seek shelter.
“They didn’t give us time. They didn’t warn us,” Reyes said, describing her personal experience from the overnight line of severe thunderstorms that the weather service confirmed brought wind gusts greater than 100 mph and left at least eight people injured around Levelland and Hockley County.
The city of Levelland stated in its official emergency declaration news release that it had little advance warning ahead of the overnight storm.
Reyes said the only warning she noticed was from a storm that hit the city earlier Tuesday that produced ping-pong to baseball size hail within the city, with areas 10 miles north seeing hail around 5 inches in size.
Weather service severe thunderstorm warnings
For its part, the National Weather Service had warned as early as Tuesday that much of the South Plains, including Levelland and Lubbock, faced an enhanced risk for severe thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon into the evening. That included a tornado watch for most of the South Plains that had expired at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
But by late Tuesday, another line of thunderstorms was developing along the Texas-New Mexico border northwest of the South Plains, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a series of severe thunderstorm warnings as the storm progressed southeast through the region. Those warnings are broadcast through the NWS social media platforms as well as on weather radios and through local media outlets, among other resources.
One severe thunderstorm warning issued after midnight was for Bailey and Cochran counties through 1 a.m., with the weather service warning of winds up to 70 mph and large hail. As the storms advanced, another severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Levelland, Hockley County and surrounding areas through 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, with other warnings being issued as the storm tracked through Lubbock, Lynn and Garza counties through the night.
According to the Lubbock National Weather Service preliminary findings report, the storm only lasted 10 minutes in Levelland before it continues southeast, impacting the city of Tahoka a few hours later.
8 injured, over 100 mph winds attributed to Wednesday night storm in Levelland, Tahoka
Based on the widespread damage, many in the Levelland community were convinced that a tornado had hit the city, but the NWS said it was a supercell that turned into a bow echo storm.
Assessing the storm’s damage
Matt Ziebell, lead forecaster for the Lubbock NWS, said a bow echo is a line of storms with strong leading winds that form the storms into the shape of a bow.
“At the tip of that line of storms are where the strongest, most intense winds are and that’s really what happened on Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning,” Ziebell said.
At the storm’s peak, the winds in Levelland measured between 110 and 120 mph, and the winds in Tahoka measured between 90 and 100 mph. Those windspeeds match those of an EF 2 and EF 1 tornado, respectively, but these winds — called straight-line winds — differ from those associated with tornados.
“We saw no indication that there was a rotation in the storm that would produce a tornado,” Ziebell said.
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Where was the warning?
Ziebell said the NWS started issuing warnings about the storm when it reached Bailey County — a county northwest of Hockley County. However, people were already in bed or about to go to bed.
“If most people are already going into bed or asleep at that point, the only way that they’re going to hear that is with a weather radio alarm going off,” Ziebell said. “Or if we have a high-end severe thunderstorm warning with winds of 80 miles an hour more than their cell phones will alert them to that.”
The storm was producing regular wind speeds of 70 mph — 10 mph below the threshold to issue a Weather Emergency Alert to people’s phones.
Since people were already in their homes, Ziebell said it may have prevented many more injuries than if the storm had struck during the daytime.
“If that storm hit Levelland in the middle of the day, I think the probability would have been very high there would have been a lot more injuries or perhaps fatalities with all the trees and power poles coming down,” Ziebell said.
How to stay safe in this type of storm.
Bow echoes and straight-line wind events are not uncommon during spring severe weather season on the South Plains. However, Ziebell said that since the cities and towns within the region are so spread out, the storms normally don’t cause much damage.
If an individual is caught in this type of weather, Ziebell said they should treat it as if it were a tornado and follow tornado safety tips by getting to the interior portion of the building or the basement.
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Ziebell also advised people to look at weather app radars before going to bed to be aware of what might happen overnight and to use a weather radio.
“The weather radios, as old as that technology is, it’s still practical,” Ziebell said. “When the power goes out or a cell phone tower goes down, you will still get the weather radio most times.”
How can I help?
As of Thursday, clean up was still underway in Levelland, with various ways to help donate to those being impacted.
Individuals can also stop by the Salvation Army Store in Levelland, at 502 Ave. H, to make monetary donations or visit the Salvation Army in Lubbock to donate to relief efforts or use the Lubbock Salvation Army website to make donations and direct them to storm relief.
The Community Foundation of West Texas and Hockley County Endowment have established a Storm Recovery Relief Fund for Hockley County. To give to the Storm Recovery Relief Fund, go to www.cfwtx.org or www.hockleycountyendowment.org or mail a check payable to CFWT, 6102 82nd Street, #8b; Lubbock, TX 79424, and reference Storm Recovery Relief Fund.
Lynn County and the City of Levelland are encouraging residents whose property was damaged by the storm to report the damage to the Texas Department of Emergency Management via the iSTAT system. A damage survey can be found at damage.tdem.texas.gov.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Levelland, Tahoka storms provide lessons for next severe weather event
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