Winter Storm — Castro, Texas

2009-12-23 to 2009-12-24 · Castro, Texas

Wider weather episode

A major winter storm brought blizzard conditions and widespread significant snow accumulations to the South Plains region of west Texas on Christmas Eve. The remnant snow pack resulted in a subsequent and rare White Christmas for much of west Texas.

Widespread light rain developed over much of west Texas on the 23rd. By late afternoon, the rain intermittently changed to or mixed with snow over portions of the extreme southwestern Texas Panhandle. The full transition toward snow, however, occurred rapidly over the entire region late in the evening and heavy snow then fell over a large part of west Texas during the overnight hours and persisted into the afternoon of the 24th.

As the parent upper air storm system ejected eastward along the Interstate 20 corridor (just south of the South Plains region) during the morning hours of the 24th, severe gradient winds with gusts between 60 and 70 mph began to accompany the snowfall over the extreme southeastern Panhandle and the northeastern South Plains. More widespread gusts around 50 mph were observed elsewhere across the South Plains. The winds and snow combined to result in white-out conditions, snow drifts as high as eight feet, and dangerous travel on area roadways.

Numerous road closures and automobile accidents were reported across the region. A man died near Dimmitt (Castro County) when his pickup truck became stalled in a large snow drift. The vehicle subsequently ran over him during efforts to free the truck from the drift. At least five persons were injured in accidents on Lubbock (Lubbock County) city streets, and another motorist was reportedly injured in a multi-vehicle accident along U.S. Highway 84 near Post (Garza County). A nine vehicle pile-up was reported on U.S. Highway 380 east of Tahoka (Lynn County). Local officials in Childress County additionally reported more than 50 accidents along U.S. Highway 287 in blizzard white-out conditions. A number of stalled vehicles also were reported in Castro, Cottle, Hockley, and Parmer Counties. Total damages were estimated to approach $1 million.

Localized reports of power outages were received, but no prolonged or widespread blackouts were experienced.

Reported snow accumulations follow: 9 inches at Post (Garza County), 8 inches at Amherst (Lamb County), 7 inches at Littlefield (Lamb County), 7 inches at Shallowater (Lubbock County), 6 inches at Kress (Swisher County), 6 inches at Smyer (Hockley County), 5 inches at Cedar Hill (Floyd County), 5 inches at Flomot (Floyd County), 5 inches at Lake Alan Henry (Garza County), 5 inches at Levelland (Hockley County), 5 inches at Lorenzo (Crosby County), 5 inches at Lubbock (Lubbock County), 5 inches at Memphis (Hall County), 5 inches at Plainview (Hale County), 5 inches at Slaton (Lubbock County), 5 inches at Sudan (Lamb County), 5 inches at Tahoka (Lynn County), 5 inches at Whiteface (Cochran County), 4 inches at Abernathy (Hale County), 4 inches at Brownfield (Terry County), 4 inches at Crosbyton (Crosby County), 4 inches at Dimmitt (Castro County), 4 inches at Estelline (Childress County), 4 inches at Flomot (Motley County), 4 inches at Floydada (Floyd County), 4 inches at Guthrie (King County), 4 inches at Hale Center (Hale County), 4 inches at Hart (Castro County), 4 inches at Muleshoe (Bailey County), 4 inches at Paducah (Cottle County), 4 inches at Petersburg (Hale County), 4 inches at Plains (Yoakum County), 4 inches at Quitaque (Briscoe County), 4 inches at Ropesville (Hockley County), 4 inches at Southland (Garza County), 3 inches at Friona (Parmer County), 3 inches at Spur (Dickens County), 3 inches at Jayton (Kent County), 2 inches at Childress (Childress County).

Severe wind gusts measured by the Texas Tech Univeristy West Texas Mesonet and the KVII-TV Schoolnet included:

68 mph at Memphis (Hall County), 64 mph at Silverton (Briscoe County), 59 mph at Paducah (Cottle County), 59 mph at Turkey (Hall County), 58 mph at Childress (Childress County).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 207794. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.