UPDATED: Dry, windy afternoon

UPDATED: Dry, windy afternoon

Posted: Updated:

LUBBOCK -

updated 12:23 p.m.

Drier air is building into the area. It'll be windy this afternoon, W wind 20-30mph. No severe weather risk for the rest of this weekend...though late Sunday into Monday still looks decent for some rain. 

Yet again Lubbock missed out on the storms. They were pretty much every direction from the city past 24 hours. Since storms moved fairly quickly the rain totals were for the most part light. Tulia picked up 0.88" over the past 24 hours, Silverton 0.63". Up in the Panhandle there was great coverage, leading to some 1" and 2" totals. We had a tornado warning for Littlefield and Lamb County late in the 6 a.m. and early part of the 7 a.m. hour. There haven't been any reports of damage. It doesn't appear there was a tornado. This is good news, since the circulation was right over town. I was impressed how a new product on FOX 34 VIPIR radar picked up the rotation clearly and quickly. This is a valuable tool when looking at severe potential.

While there won't be any storms here it's a different story in North Texas. It's muggy there with the dew point in the 70s. There's a good chance for severe storms. This could affect Texas Tech Baseball's matchup with TCU in Fort Worth this evening. The weather will be better there tomorrow and Sunday.

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posted 4:15 a.m.

THIS MORNING: A severe thunderstorm watch runs until 6 a.m. for Lubbock and the South Plains. The main risk with any storms that turn severe will be hail larger than 1" diameter.

Earlier this morning there were a few storms that likely produced some 1" hail in Eastern New Mexico those storms have since moved up into the Panhandle and appear to have weakened some. As of 4 a.m. a few more storms are now developing over the western South Plains. These will move NE. It looks like this is the better lift that'll move across the area next few hours. Not too long after sunrise storms will be out of here, so it's just next few hours that have the storm potential.

Interactive radar
VIPIR Radar live stream

TODAY: Once the storms are out of here it'll be a pretty quick transition to a breezy to windy day with much drier air. Today's high near 80. The dew point will drop down into the 20s, a sign of real dry air. SW/W wind 18-30mph. Here is the updated current dew point map:

WEEKEND: A front will move through tonight, setting up a great day tomorrow. High in the low to mid 70s, sunny early with a few more clouds late in the day, wind NW 5-15 becoming southerly late. Another front will make it even cooler Sunday, high only in the mid 60s, becoming mostly cloudy.

NEXT RAIN CHANCE: The next upper-level storm system will be dropping down across the SW United States late this weekend. While it'll be opening up and weakening some by the time the lift gets to our area, it looks like this will bring the setup for some showers. It's a slight chance for rain and perhaps a thunderstorm Sunday. The chance gets better Monday. With a lot of clouds and a persistent northeast wind it'll only reach about 60 on Monday. There isn't a severe weather risk Sun-Mon. In fact, it may all just be steady showers. There's the potential for this to be a good 1/4" to 1/2" of rain for much of the area.

NEXT WEEK: It'll gradually get a little warmer each day Tuesday through Thursday. A few computer runs have shown isolated storms in the northwesterly flow aloft mid-week, but this doesn't look too promising. There is a stronger upper-level storm system moving this way by late in the week or next weekend. This has the potential to bring more storms and possibly severe weather. It's too far out to know which day or if it'll even be in our area or east of here. This will be something to watch in the coming days. But hopefully first we're just watching gentle rain to start the week.

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Have a great weekend. Rudy will have the next forecast update here later today.
-Matt