Cold/Wind Chill — Willacy, Texas

2025-02-19 to 2025-02-22 · Willacy, Texas

Event narrative

Edinburg AWOS recorded about 46.5 hours of wind chills at or below 30F degrees from 11:35pm on February 19th to 12:15pm on February 20th, from 11:15pm on February 20th to 11:15pm on February 21st, and from 1:15am to 10:35am on February 22. A minimum wind chill temperature between 23-25F degrees occurred on February 20th. Texas Agriscience AWOS recorded about 52 hours of wind chills at or below 30F degrees from 10:15pm on February 19th to 12:15pm on February 20th and from 10:40pm on February 20th to 1:05pm on February 22nd. Minimum wind chill temperatures between 21-22F degrees occurred on February 20th.

By proxy, the observation at Texas Agriscience (Texas Water Development Board Mesonet) can be extrapolated into most of Willacy County.

Wider weather episode

Behind the passage of a strong cold front, a cold air mass gripped and lingered over Deep South Texas and the Rio Grande valley resulting in freezing temperatures, locally extreme cold, and a third sea turtle cold-stunning event February 20-22, 2025. More than 175 sea turtles were stunned when the sea surface temperature of the lower Laguna Madre fell below 50 at several points during the period, as air temperatures hovered from the mid to upper 30s to lower 40s.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1239974. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.