Jennifer L Dunn, Ted Best<\/em><\/p>\n On 2 May 2007, a derecho-producing mesoscale convective system tracked across west-central and north Texas, producing damaging wind speeds up to 40 m s-1<\/sup>\u00a0(78 kt).\u00a0 Damage included loss of roofs, overturning of trucks and manufactured homes, and several downed electrical towers. \u00a0Some of the most intense damage occurred in association with deep mesovortices (\u22653 km AGL) along the leading edge of the line of storms. \u00a0The event began as a cluster of storms in eastern New Mexico and west Texas that evolved into a line-echo wave pattern, and finally transitioned into a larger bow echo as it moved into north Texas. \u00a0The derecho occurred in a thermodynamic environment characterized as moderately unstable, with weak vertical wind shear and weak synoptic-scale forcing for vertical motions.\u00a0 \u00a0Some studies suggest that the thermodynamic environment on this day supported a derecho, but other research utilizing numerical simulations indicate that the vertical wind shear was too weak to sustain the elevated rear-inflow jet and deep mesovortices that occurred in this case. \u00a0Several mesovortices, with average lifetimes of 12 min and depths \u22653 km, were identified within 97 km (60 mi) of the nearest network radar.\u00a0 This event both supports and contradicts various aspects of prior research on derecho evolution and behavior.<\/p>\nAbstract<\/h4>\n