Winter Weather — Hockley, Texas
2013-12-05 · Hockley, Texas
Wider weather episode
A strong cold front plowed through the extreme southern Texas Panhandle, South Plains, and Rolling Plains on the 4th, causing temperatures to plummet into the 20s overnight. This was the beginning of a three and a half day period of subfreezing temperatures in West Texas.
The first batch of wintry precipitation fell on the extreme southern Texas Panhandle, South Plains, and Rolling Plains as an upper level disturbance moved through ahead of a parent trough during the early morning hours of the 5th. The precipitation fell as mainly freezing rain and sleet. A large swath of freezing rain impacted locations in the southern South Plains into the southern and central Rolling Plains, with amounts up to one quarter of an inch reported. Parts of King and Cottle counties observed up to two and a half inches of sleet and snow combined. Nearly 100 traffic accidents were attributed to icy roads in and around Lubbock, while icy conditions on Texas Highway 114, one mile west of Smyer in Hockley County, caused a two-vehicle crash producing one fatality and two injuries.
As the upper trough pushed out of the Great Basin and into the Desert Southwest, another round of frozen precipitation impacted the southern South Plains and Rolling Plains into the far southeastern Panhandle throughout the evening of the 5th into the morning of the 6th, consisting of mostly sleet early before transitioning to snow as cooling occurred aloft throughout the atmosphere. Up to five inches of storm total snow and sleet occurred in Paducah, with parts of Childress and Motley Counties reporting three and a half to four inches.
Selected snow/sleet totals from the 5th-6th:
5 inches snow/sleet at Paducah...
4 inches snow/sleet at Kirkland...
3.5 inches snow/sleet at Roaring Springs...
3 inches snow/sleet at Childress...
3 inches snow/sleet at Matador.
Selected ice totals from the 5th-6th:
0.50 inches at Crosbyton...
0.25 inches at Tahoka...
0.25 inches at Post...
0.25 inches at Brownfield...
0.20 inches at Plains.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 479416. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.