Winter Storm in Deaf Smith, Texas

Six to eight inches of snow accumulated across the county, with the highest total measured occurring at Dawn of eight inches.

An upper level low pressure system moved east across far west Texas northeast on April 5th towards the Red River valley area of northwest Texas. By that night, good moisture had returned to the Panhandles region. Rain changed over to light snow behind a cold front that pushed through during the early morning hours of April 5th. One to two inches of snow accumulated in the northwest to north central Panhandles during the morning hours. Throughout the afternoon into the early evening, bands of snow developed across the central and southern Texas Panhandle, which resulted in snowfall rates of about one half of an inch per hour. Wind gusts of 35-45 mph at times also caused areas of blowing snow with snow drifts over a foot in some locations. Highest snowfall totals for this event occurred across portions of Deaf Smith, Randall, and Armstrong counties as a result of hours under mesoscale banding, along with north winds and upslope flow across portions of Palo Duro Canyon. Highest reported snowfall totals were four to eight inches along the Highway 60 corridor from just east of Hereford to portions of south and west Amarillo.