Cold/Wind Chill — Starr, Texas

2025-01-20 to 2025-01-21 · Starr, Texas

Event narrative

La Puerta recorded wind chill values at or below 30F degrees for 15 hours (from 11:11pm January 20 to 2:11pm January 21). A minimum wind chill value of 25F degrees occurred between 2:11am to 5:11am on January 21. Rancho Los Comitos recorded wind chill values at or below 30F degrees for a total of 15.5 hours (from 8:05am to 11:30am January 20, 7:50pm January 20 to 3:20am January 21, and 1:15pm to 5:50pm January 21. A minimum wind chill value of 22F degrees occurred between 11:45pm January 20 to 1:45am 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 1231464. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.