High Wind — Lynn, Texas

2023-02-26 · Lynn, Texas

Wider weather episode

The second powerful winter storm to affect the region in less than a week brought another round of highly impactful weather to West Texas. The powerful winter storm system accelerated through the Four Corners and emerged across the central and southern High Plains on the afternoon of the 26th. As this occurred, rapidly deepening low pressure, in combination with a dryline and Pacific cold front, increased the wind dramatically across the entire region. Initially gusty southerly winds not only transported moisture northward, but began to loft enough blowing dust to turn the sky an orange/brown color by mid-afternoon. As the Pacific front raced out of eastern New Mexico, the wind and dust levels increased and became dangerous. Widespread severe wind gusts lofted copious amounts of dust, dropping the visibility to and below one quarter mile in most locations on the Caprock through the late afternoon hours. The thick dust made travel difficult to impossible and contributed to several vehicle accidents around the region. Severe winds also brought down numerous utility poles across the South Plains. When the cold front overtook the dryline, widespread showers and thunderstorms filled in over the southeast Texas Panhandle into the Rolling Plains. The storms did provide a little rain in spots as a quick-moving line raced eastward, but they also enhanced the wind and a few locations even experienced hail, as large as golf balls in Memphis (Hall County). Wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph were common with the strongest thunderstorm activity, but the West Texas Mesonet site one mile northeast of Memphis (Hall County) recorded an impressive 114 mph gust. Thankfully, this magnitude of wind appeared quite localized, though the town of Memphis did have some damage, both from the wind and wind-driven hail. Several windows were broken, roofs were damaged and carports were destroyed. Behind the dryline, the intense winds and warm and much drier air created a period of critical fire weather. These conditions supported the ignition and spread of several wildfires on the South Plains, including one west of Levelland (Hockley County) and a second in northwest Lamb County.

High wind gust reports from the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet are listed below:

84 mph at Paducah (Cottle County),

82 mph at Hart (Castro County),

82 mph at White River Lake (Crosby County),

79 mph at Friona (Parmer County),

78 mph at Amherst (Lamb County),

78 mph at Plainview (Hale County),

77 mph at Dimmitt (Castro County),

77 mph at McAdoo (Dickens County),

77 mph at Lubbock 4E (Lubbock County),

77 mph at Anton (Hockley County),

76 mph at Roaring Springs (Motley County),

75 mph at Olton (Lamb County),

75 mph at Floydada (Floyd County),

75 mph at Levelland (Hockley County),

75 mph at Graham (Garza County),

75 mph at Plains (Yoakum County),

75 mph at Denver City (Yoakum County),

74 mph at Aiken (Hale County),

74 mph at Lesley (Hall County),

73 mph at Tulia (Swisher County),

73 mph at Silverton (Briscoe County),

73 mph at Ralls (Crosby County),

73 mph at Muleshoe (Bailey County),

73 mph at Earth (Lamb County),

72 mph at Northfield (Motley County),

72 mph at Vigo Park (Swisher County),

72 mph at Wolfforth (Lubbock County),

72 mph at Reese Center (Lubbock County),

72 mph at Abernathy (Hale County),

72 mph at Morton (Cochran County),

71 mph at Hackberry (Cottle County),

71 mph at Lubbock Texas Tech University (Lubbock County),

71 mph at Sundown (Cochran County),

71 mph at South Plains (Floyd County),

70 mph at Childress (Childress County),

70 mph at Lubbock 6SSW (Lubbock County),

70 mph at New Deal (Lubbock County),

69 mph at Happy (Swisher County),

69 mph at Post (Garza County),

69 mph at Caprock Canyons State Park (Briscoe County),

69 mph at Spur (Dickens County),

69 mph at Guthrie (King County),

68 mph at O'Donnell (Lynn County),

68 mph at Slaton (Lubbock County),

67 mph at Turkey (Hall County),

67 mph at Brownfield (Terry County),

64 mph at Tahoka (Lynn County),

64 mph at Lubbock 4SE (Lubbock County),

62 mph at Estelline (Hall County),

60 mph at New Home (Lynn County), and

58 mph at White River Lake (Garza County).

Maximum wind gusts from area ASOS and AWOS stations are listed below:

78 mph at Childress Municipal Airport (Childress County),

77 mph at Lubbock International Airport (Lubbock County),

75 mph at Levelland Municipal Airport (Hockley County), and

63 mph at Hale County Airport (Hale County).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1075266. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.