High Wind — Motley, Texas

2024-03-24 · Motley, Texas

Wider weather episode

A large and powerful storm system emerging from the Intermountain West generated strong winds and blowing dust for the southern High Plains. At times, the dust caused visibility to drop below two miles. The most intense winds, gusting from 60 to 70 mph, targeted the western and northwestern South Plains into the southern Texas Panhandle. A peak gust of 77 mph was measured by the Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet near Sundown (Cochran County). The fierce winds did cause damage in spots, including toppling a pontoon in Wolfforth (Lubbock County) and damaging a shed in western Lubbock County. Many tree limbs were downed, while reports of uprooted trees were also reported. When a Pacific cold front and stronger lift encountered better low-level moisture, scattered thunderstorms erupted and tracked quickly eastward over portions of the Rolling Plains. Storms became severe once they moved east of the Rolling Plains.

High wind gusts from the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet network are below:

77 mph at Sundown (Cochran County),

69 mph at Olton (Lamb County),

69 mph at Earth (Lamb County),

67 mph at Morton (Cochran County),

67 mph at Levelland (Hockley County),

67 mph at Lesley (Hall County),

66 mph at Amherst (Lamb County),

66 mph at Vigo Park (Swisher County),

65 mph at Plains (Yoakum County),

65 mph at Friona (Parmer County),

64 mph at Plainview (Hale County),

64 mph at Abernathy (Hale County),

63 mph at Denver City (Yoakum County),

63 mph at Turkey (Hall County),

63 mph at Hart (Castro County),

63 mph at Brownfield (Terry County),

63 mph at Muleshoe (Bailey County),

63 mph at White River Lake (Crosby County),

62 mph at Tulia (Swisher County),

62 mph at Happy (Swisher County),

61 mph at Anton (Hockley County),

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

60 mph at Aiken (Hale County),

60 mph at McAdoo (Dickens County),

60 mph at South Plains (Floyd County),

60 mph at Silverton (Briscoe County),

59 mph at Dimmitt (Castro County),

59 mph at Ralls (Crosby County), and

59 mph at Floydada (Floyd County).

The following high wind reports are from Automated Surface Observing Stations (ASOS) and Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS):

73 mph at Lubbock International Airport (Lubbock County),

67 mph at Levelland Municipal Airport (Hockley County),

60 mph at Childress Municipal Airport (Childress County), and

58 mph at Denver City Airport (Yoakum County).

Sustained high winds of 40 mph or greater were observed by the Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet sites below:

49 mph at O'Donnell (Lynn County),

45 mph at Northfield (Motley County),

44 mph at New Home (Lynn County),

43 mph at Roaring Springs (Motley County),

42 mph at Tahoka (Lynn County), and

42 mph at Graham (Garza County).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1160791. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.