Storm Report for Temple, Bell County, Texas
for Sunday, April 2, 2000
All times CDT
A very active Sunday afternoon and evening for Bell County as four severe
storms passed through the county. No major damage was reported from any of
the storms.
Storm #1 formed about 65 miles SW of the county and preceded to move NE
toward Bell County at 30 mph. It was evident by looking at the radar that
these storms were going to pass west of my location so I headed out to
intercept them shortly before 5 p.m. I headed west on US 190 out of Belton.
The skies were cloudy, not what you would expect for a severe weather day,
and it was hard to spot any thunderstorms. As I approached Nolanville,
about 15 miles west of Belton, I was able to spot the leading edge of the
approaching storm. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning had been issued for this
storm at 5:23 p.m.
After experiencing golfball size hail the previous Sunday, an experience I
was not anxious to repeat, I decided to head north in Nolanville, cutting
across to FM 439. Once I got to FM 439, I headed east, in the same general
direction as the storm, until I reached FM 2271, where I turned north, once
again running perpendicular to the storm. Due to the fast movement of this
storm (50 mph) and the lack of places to safely pull of the road, I was not
able to get any photos of the storm. I did get a good view of it as I was
crossing over the Belton Dam and it looked like the storm was losing some
of its punch at that time (approx. 5:45 p.m).
I continued north on 2271, intersecting FM 2305 where I headed east. I then
took Texas 317 north toward Moody. I intersected the storm at Texas 317 and
Southerland Road (about 10 miles N of Belton) where I experienced some
brief pea size hail and heavy rain. There was no excessive wind and little
in the way of lightning with this storm. The rain lasted about 5 minutes
and then moved quickly off to the NE.
The only thing that I heard on this storm was from a ham operator west of
Killeen that reported enough hail on the ground that it looked like snow.
Storm reports from the NWS indicated storm spotters reporting dime size
hail at Gray Army Airfield on Fort Hood and quarter size hail in Killeen at
5:45 p.m. along with nickel size hail being reported by the Killeen Police
Department at 5:47 p.m.
By the time I got back home, Storm #2 was approaching SW Bell County. Radar
indicated that this storm was going to take a more direct approach so I
took up a location on Dubois Road just south of FM 93, about 2 miles east
of Belton. The time was about 6:45 p.m. At 6:46 p.m., the NWS issued a
Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Bell County for the approaching storm which
was moving NE at 45 mph. I had a nice clear view to the SW from my location
and was get photos of the approaching storm. Again, not wanting to repeat
the previous Sunday episode, I headed to my brothers house about 2 miles
east on FM 93 to take shelter. At about 7:10 p.m., the storm struck with
moderate hail ranging from marble to nickel in size. The hail lasted for 6
to 7 minutes followed by brief moderate rain. The storm then moved off to
the east. I would estimate about 30 to 40 percent of the ground was covered
by the hail.
There were some interesting shapes to the hail. Some of it was round with
spikes, some of it was shaped like a wheel rim with spikes around the rim
and a few pieces were round with a tail, like a comet with a tail. Photos
of the approaching storm and the hail can be seen at
http://www.vvm.com/~rprcin/april2.htm
One of the local television stations reported a lady called in 2" square
hail stones along FM 93 but we were not able to pinpoint to a better
location. Other reports from the NWS included the public reporting of
golfball hail in Salado (15 miles SSW) at 6:54 p.m. and a spotter reporting
golfball hail in Belton (4 miles W), also at 6:54 p.m. There was little
wind or lightning with this storm as it passed our location.
At 8:05 p.m., the NWS issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Bell County
for Storm #3. This warning was in effect until 8:30 p.m. We were still
investigating Storm #2 and were not able to follow this storm closely. At
the time the warning was issued, the storm was located 3 miles west of
Morgan's Point Resort (12 miles NW) moving NE at 45 mph. Doppler radar had
indicated hail to the size of quarters in this storm.
There was a lull of a whole hour and 20 minutes between the expiration of
the warning for Storm #3 and the issuance of the warning for Storm #4. Once
again this storm approached from the SW and a Severe Thunderstorm Warning
was issued for Bell County at 9:50 p.m. The storm was moving NE at 45 mph.
The most notable thing about this storm was the heavy rain. With the
passage of the three previous storms in such quick succession, flooding was
beginning to be a threat. Nolan Creek in Harker Heights (20 miles W) was
reported to be running at bankfull and at 10:20 p.m., the NWS issued a
Flash Flood Warning for Bell County effective until 12:15 a.m. Monday
morning.
Storm #4 began moving into the south Temple area at about 10:20 p.m. and
moderate rain continued for about the next 15 minutes. There were some
reports of minor street flooding but not much else.
The saving grace to these storms was their fast movement. They didn't
linger too long in any one place as they moved along at 45 - 55 mph. The
other fortunate thing was that although the storms generally tracked SW to
NE, each of the four storms took different paths across the county, sparing
any one place multiple hits.
Total rain from the Sunday storms at my weather station was 0.94". Total
from Saturday and Sunday was 1.31". Total rain for the year through April 2
is 8.06", which is 0.68" above normal for the year. Year to date rainfall
at this time last year was 2.06".
NWS statements for the above storms can be found at
http://www.vvm.com/~rprcin/nws0402.htm
Ronnie
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Live Home Weather Station:
http://www.vvm.com/~rprcin/livewx.htm
My Photo Album:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=13364
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