High Wind — Armstrong, Texas

2025-03-14 · Armstrong, Texas

Event narrative

Each observation site had dozens of high wind gusts from 58 mph to 80 mph, with the highest concentration of high wind gusts between 1050CDT to 1410CDT. Estimated average sustained winds were 45-50 mph during that time.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level system brought in high winds early in the day on the 14th and stuck around through the afternoon. Breezy southwest surface winds shifted to the west with the arrival of a Pacific front. Behind this front much stronger winds aloft started to mix to the surface. Winds started gusting above 58 mph almost immediately behind the front with a ground station near Bootleg, TX measuring a gust of 59 mph at 5:10 AM CDT. Two other stations near Romero and Adrian, TX measured a gust of 60 mph at 5:22 AM CDT. As the day started to warm up with the sun out, much higher winds started to mix to the surface along with sustained winds pickin up into the 35 to 50 mph range. The south central and southwestern TX Panhandle saw their winds peak between 1030 AM and 230 PM where some areas to the north like the OK Panhandle and to the east winds did not peak until later in the afternoon. Some of the highest winds measured were 84 mph at the mesonet station in Hereford and 83 mph measured by the Amarillo Airport ASOS around 10:43 AM CDT. These high winds quickly caused blowing dust with visibility issuse especially around the southern TX Panhandle. The high winds created problems for high profile vehicle such as tractor trailors or semi-trucks but also caused dangerous travel conditions with reduced visibilities falling below 1/4 mile. With winds being westerly this especially caused problems along I-27 south of Amarillo which runs north and south causing mutliple semi-trucks to overturn.

Dry air which over took the Panhandles during the afternoon also combined with the high winds creating a high fire danger day. Multiple fires impacted the combined Panhandles with a couple of these fires impacting residents of around Alanreed and McLean, Texas as Fire Warnings had to be issued to prepare folks for the potential of an evacuation. One fire impacted campers at Wolf Creek Park southeast of Perryton, TX. This fire also closed down a section of HWY 70 south of Perryton.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1246068. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.