Winter Weather — Oldham, Texas

2013-11-21 to 2013-11-23 · Oldham, Texas

Event narrative

Multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 40 near Vega. Eleven vehicles involded, 20 people hospitalized, and three fatalities.

Wider weather episode

A very strong cold front dove through the Texas Panhandle during the day of the 21st. The cold airmass behind the front was fairly shallow with the lowest five to six thousand feet reaching temperatures below freezing. Above this cold near surface layer was a five to six thousand foot deep above freezing warm layer. This warm noise and a relative lack of moisture in the snow growth region of the atmosphere kept the precipitation type during the late night hours of the 21st mainly freezing drizzle. As the hours progressed into the early morning hours of the 22nd, the Dodge City, Kansas upper air sounding showed the snow growth region was saturating. This allowed for the precipitation type to transition to a freezing drizzle, sleet, and snow grain mixture. Precipitation remained a freezing drizzle, sleet, and snow grains mixture through the morning hours of the 23rd due to the snow growth region not becoming sufficiently saturated as observed on the Amarillo, Texas upper air sounding.

Several counties across the Texas Panhandle were impacted by this wintry mixture of precipitation. Sleet was first reported in Dalhart (Hartley and Dallam County) shortly before midnight on the 22nd while around a half hour later a member of the local broadcast media reported freezing drizzle on the southwest side of the city of Amarillo (Potter and Randall County). It wasn't until 3:35 AM CST on the 22nd that the Amarillo ASOS reported freezing drizzle. The freezing drizzle reported at the Amarillo (Randall and Potter County) moved to the northeast and created a few slick spots on roadways near Pantex (Carson County) Shortly before 5:00 AM CST, a NWS employee reported spotty slick road conditions, mainly on bridges and overpasses, on the east side of town due to both freezing drizzle and snow grains. Around this same time, a trained spotter reported one to two inches of snow on the highways around the town of Texline (Dallam County), and crews were working to plow the highways. The snow band that created the inch of snow in Dallam County moved over the city for Stratford (Sherman County) before dissipating. The NWS COOP observer in Borger (Hutchinson County) also reported light sleet between 4:00 AM CST and 7:00 AM CST as a cell from Dumas (Moore County). Once the morning commute commenced around 7:00 AM CST on the 22nd, the Canyon (Randall County) Fire and Rescue reported black ice on Interstate 27 south of Loop 335 (Randall County) caused 3 to 4 vehicle accidents. A weather related accident was also reported in Armstrong County on US Highway 287 near the town of Goodnight. No reports of serious injuries were reported in association to these accidents. By 8:30 AM CST, the Collingsworth County Judge reported sleet had begun in the town of Wellington. By 10:00 AM CST, the Texas Department of Transportation based in Clarendon (Donley County) reported sleet covering the ground in town, and that slick roads were the cause of three semi-tractor trailers jack-knifing on US. Highway 287 between Goodnight (Armstrong County) and Clarendon (Donley County). They also reported US Highway 70 was becoming icy.

The combination of scattered precipitation and road crews working to keep roadways clear led to a lull in reports of accidents until the early morning hours of the 23rd. A NWS employee reported freezing rain on the eastern side of Amarillo (Potter and Randall County), and that there was an accident near the Big Texan Steak House (Potter County) around 1:30 AM CST. The freezing rain also led to icy conditions on streets in the town of Hereford (Deaf Smith County), on US Highway 60, and State Highway 385 within the county. Freezing rain also led to three vehicle accidents which involving 11 vehicles, causing 20 individuals to be transported to local hospitals, and resulted in three fatalities. A series of vehicle collisions began when two tractor trailers collided in the eastbound lane of Interstate 40. Motorist behind the tractor trailers lost control of their vehicles due to ice while trying to avoid the initial accident. Two passenger vehicles and seven tractor trailers collided with the initial tractor trailers. One fatality occurred when the driver of one of the wrecked tractor trailer exited the vehicle before being struck by another vehicle that had lost control and one passenger on each of the passenger vehicles were killed. The eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 near Vega (Oldham County) remained closed until the wrecked vehicles could be removed.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 483903. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.