1970 Lubbock Tornado - Development

Development

At 10AM on 11 May 1970, the SELS (Severe Local Storms unit) issued an outlook that stated that isolated thunderstorms were possible in the High Plains region of West Texas, and amended the outlook at 1:25 PM to include the possibility that some of the storms may become severe. Warm and dry conditions dominated the area throughout the afternoon; the temperature peaked at a high of 90°F (32°C) with moderate humidity. At 6PM, large cumulus clouds began to appear in the area, and at 6:30 the first echoes indicating thunderstorms began to appear on radar scopes in nearby Amarillo. Less than half an hour later, Lubbock radar indicated the first thunderstorm activity in the immediate Lubbock vicinity: a moderate storm just south of the city near the small farming community of Woodrow.

Conditions continued to deteriorate through the early evening, and at 7:30 the local weather bureau issued a forecast which included the developing thunderstorm activity. By 7:45 the thunderstorm south of the city was indicated by radar to be increasing in intensity, and at 7:50 the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Lubbock, Crosby and Floyd counties. Shortly afterward, reports of rapidly deteriorating conditions on the south side of the city of Lubbock began to come in to the weather bureau and by 8:05, citizens south of the city were reporting golf ball-sized hail to the bureau.