Marine Thunderstorm Wind · Gulf of Mexico

Peak winds reached 35 knots at the South Padre Island Heliport, about a mile from the Coast Guard station and one half mile from the Gulf shoreline, recorded 35 knots as the line passed between 1215 and 1245 PM. Radar data and proximity to the coast suggest the showers and storms continued at similar intensity across American waters for about 30 minutes after the first gust; later gusts were behind the front, associated with building Canadian high pressure.

One of the only fronts in March arrived on the Lower Texas Gulf of Mexico and Laguna waters during the late morning and early afternoon of March 5th, bringing a broken and developing line of showers and thunderstorms and a surge of gale-force northwest winds immediately behind its passage, with sharply falling temperatures from the 70s into the 50s and rapidly building seas to near 10 feet before conditions gradually improved during the evening and overnight.