Cold/Wind Chill — Northern Hidalgo County, Texas

2025-01-20 to 2025-01-21 · Northern Hidalgo County, Texas

Event narrative

South Texas International Airport in Edinburg recorded 31 hours (from 10:35am on January 20 to 6:35pm on January 21) of wind chills at or below 30F degrees (cold weather advisory wind chills). Within that time period, Edinburg International Airport recorded 8.5 hours (from 1:55am to 10:35am on January 21) of wind chills at or below 20F degrees (extreme cold advisory levels). A minimum wind chill value of 18F degrees occurred at times between 2:15am and 9:55am on January 21. Linn San Manuel recorded 16 hours (from 10:46pm on January 20 to 2:46pm on January 21) of wind chills at or below 30F degrees (cold weather advisory wind chills). A minimum wind chill value of 24F degrees occurred between 2:46am and 3:46am on January 21.

Wider weather episode

An Arctic Express with air that originated in Siberia and moved near the North Pole before surging south through northwest Canada and deep into the United States and northern Mexico January 20-22, 2025 resulted in widespread, in some cases record setting, cold temperatures across the Rio Grande Valley and Deep South Texas. This Arctic Cold Snap resulted in widespread sea turtle cold stunnings along the Lower Texas coast. Furthermore, light precipitation resulted in light accumulations of ice for all but the lower Valley (eastern Cameron and Willacy) during this time period.

Along the coast, a second sea turtle cold-stun event occurred in lower Laguna Madre Bay, with around 375 turtles affected - the most since the January 15-17, 2024, event.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1231459. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.