Severe weather galore in May for Texoma
DENISON, Texas (KTEN) – As the calendar flipped to May, Texomans were cleaning up from the recent April 27, 2024 tornado outbreak along I-35 and hoping no more severe weather would happen. Unfortunately, May would bring a slew of severe weather chances throughout the whole month.
The first “High” risk since May 20, 2019 was issued for Oklahoma on May 6, which included a small portion of Garvin County. Thankfully, no widespread severe weather outbreak was observed in Texoma. A majority of the storms were well north of Oklahoma City.
May 8 would see the first tornado of the month in Lamar County where an EF-0 tornado touched down west of Pat Mayse Lake.
The very next day, on May 9, straight-line wind damage was observed in southern Grayson and southern Lamar counties. The Valero gas station in Howe, Texas saw significant damage.
Golf ball to baseball size hail was reported in Luella in Grayson County to Savoy and Bonham in Fannin County.
Following severe weather on May 9, Texomans were greeted to a rare sight in the northern sky. The Northern Lights shined bright for some and many KTEN viewers sent in stunning images of the display!
The Northern Lights were able to make it this far south due to a rare G5 geomagnetic storm, the strongest storm since October of 2003.
After May 9, a brief break in the stormy pattern was well-received by all in Texoma. Then, May 13 arrived and Texoma was back in a consistent threat for severe storms through May 16 until a second brief break was observed. May 21 would kick back into gear the threat for severe weather all the way through the end of the month.
Quarter to dollar coin size hail was observed in Blossom, Texas and Clayton, Oklahoma from severe storms on May 22.
Within a small window of calm weather between two severe weather threats in Texoma, the KTEN Weather Team was fortunate enough to visit the Oklahoma State Capitol on May 23 to be recognized for their life-saving efforts during the April 27, 2024 tornado outbreak with Senate Resolution 44.
The team came right back to Denison in time for the next round of severe weather during the evening on May 23.
Two days later, on May 25, a “Moderate” risk for severe weather was hoisted for the I-35 corridor in Texoma and the KTEN Weather Team was back at it again with wall-to-wall coverage of two long-track tornadic storms that traversed through the region. Unfortunately, 7 people were killed due to the long-track tornado that traversed 48 miles from Montague to Cooke to Denton counties.
The Cooke County tornado would be upgraded to an EF-3 with winds of up to 140 MPH by the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lake Ray Roberts also saw tornado damage due to an EF-1 tornado that tore through the lake’s marina.
A majority of May days in Sherman received above average temperatures with a decent amount of below average days here and there.
In terms of rainfall, May was a month to remember with over 10 inches of rain falling at the KTEN studios. Sherman’s average rainfall for the month of May is 5.54 inches, so Texoma cashed in on a much above average month for rainfall.
Soaking rains led to several instances of flash flooding in Texoma, especially in Grayson County.
Let’s hope our severe weather chances decrease heading into the month of June!
