June 18, 2017 Landspout Tornadoes

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June 18, 2017 Landspout Tornadoes During the evening hours of Sunday, June 18, thunderstorms developed in the vicinity of a cold front over Reagan and Upton Counties.As a result of intense heating and an incredible amount of instability along this boundary, three EF0 landspout* (see definitionat bottom of report) tornadoes touched down in Reagan and southeast Upton Counties between 7 and 8 pm CDT. These tornadoes occurred in open country and no damage was reported. Tornado #1 – EF0: Southwest Reagan County to Southeast Upton County (~7:05-7:13 pm CDT) The first thunderstorm developed around 6:00 pm near Big Lake, TX and slowly moved west along and near US Hwy 67. Law enforcement officersand folks in the area viewed and took images of a tornado that developed 1-2 miles south of US Hwy 67 roughly 14 miles east of Big Lake and continued westward through open fields insouth east portions of Upton County. The tornado was narrow, perhaps 50-75 yards in width and no damage was reported with this tornado. Photo by Maybell Carrasco Photo by Greg Romero Tornado #2 – EF0: Central Reagan Photo by Shanna Gibson County (~8:00 pm CDT) Another thunderstorm moving west, entered eastern Reagan County around 7:30 pm. As this storm approached Big Lake, a second tornado was spotted around 8 pm roughly 6-7 miles northeast of Big Lake, 2-3 miles east of SH 137. This tornado was very short-lived and went undetected on radar. It occurred in open country and no damage was reported. Tornado #3 – EF0: Northeast Reagan County – approximately 20-25 miles north of Big Lake. (~8:05 pm CDT) This landspout tornado was not associated with a parent thunderstorm and instead formed from a towering cumulus cloud along the front. It was seen and recorded by law enforcement just east of SH 137 roughly 20-25 miles north of Big Lake. This tornado was brief and also remained in open Photo by Dustin Wilha country. No damage was reported. *A landspout is a tornado that does not arise from organized storm-scale rotation and therefore is not associated with a wall cloud (visually) or a mesocyclone (on radar). Landspouts typically are observed beneath cumulonimbus or towering cumulus clouds, and essentially are the land-based equivalents of waterspouts. .

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