Breezy conditions were present across the Texas Panhandle on the afternoon of February 7th. Most wind gusts did not exceed 45 mph.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS AMA wrote it up.
Breezy conditions were present across the Texas Panhandle on the afternoon of February 7th. Most wind gusts did not exceed 45 mph. However, a couple of observation sites located near Dumas managed to gust up to 60mph.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 7, 2:27 PM CST, 1 hour 49 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Amarillo TX 227 PM CST Wed Feb 7 2024 ...New SHORT TERM, LONG TERM... .SHORT TERM ... (This evening through Thursday night) Issued at 227 PM CST Wed Feb 7 2024 Lee cyclogenesis is currently ongoing in northeastern Colorado, resulting in a strengthening low which is tightening surface pressure gradient for much of the central and southern High Plains. As of 1 PM, mid-level moisture is streaming over the Panhandles with a 50-65 kt 700mb jet streak. A Pacific front, marked with surface wind convergence and a band of developing rain showers, is observed in eastern New Mexico. Breezy conditions are being experienced in the Panhandles, but an altostratus deck is preventing deeper mixing and therefore windier/gustier conditions. Nonetheless... can't rule out a 40-50 mph wind gust, primarily in the northwestern combined Panhandles this afternoon due to a dry slot that has worked into the area. Otherwise, the rest of the combined Panhandles may not see a gust above 40 mph due to persistent cloud cover. This may change, however, when the Pacific front moves through and perhaps a rain shower can mix down a stronger wind gust... especially if there's a slight inverted-V that some guidance depicts. The better chance for rain showers and better accumulation will be in the eastern half of the CWA due to a relatively more moist low-level profile. This is reflected by DESI HREF probabilities showing a 20-30% chance of exceeding 0.2" of rain in the east-central combined Panhandles. Can't entirely rule out a rumble of thunder in the northern Panhandles as the more aggressive models (3km & 12km NAM) depict up to 250 J/kg of MUCAPE. However, confidence is still low given NAM's overly moist/unstable bias. Clouds will clear behind the front, but breezy westerly winds are expected to continue through the night as the low pressure system moves off to the northeast. Another low pressure system is favored to develop tomorrow in southeastern Colorado leading to another breezy day. The sky will be clear, allowing for deeper mixing unlike today. However, low-level winds will be weaker and therefore not expecting tomorrow to be much windier than today. Was tempted to increase the forecast highs slightly for tomorrow with the breezy downsloping westerly winds favored but have held off as 850mb temperatures look to be cooler than today. Winds will calm down to the 10-15 mph range tomorrow night. Vanden Bosch && .LONG TERM ... (Friday through next Tuesday) Issued at 227 PM CST Wed Feb 7 2024 A period of active weather is on tap for the panhandles come this weekend as a winter weather system impacts the souther plains. Friday the parent trough of the winter system is expected to be in mountainous West but this will lead to an increase in the pressure gradient across the southern plains. This in turn is expected to lead to gusty westerly winds in the 30s mph range across the panhandles for Friday. This setup will allow the winds to push dry air from the higher elevations of New Mexico to the lower elevations of the caprock to east off of the caprock allowing for adiabatic warming to come into play. This will produce warmer temperatures with most areas in the upper 50s to mid 60s with the lower elevations in the East being the warmest with cooler conditions in the higher western areas of the panhandles. These warm conditions will come to an abrupt end towards the evening hours as a cold front passes across the panhandles from the NW. This will allow for colder air to be in place across the southern plains ahead of the weekend system setting us up for potential winter weather. Saturday and Sunday the trough and associated weather system is expected to arrive and pass through the souther plains. There is a large amount of uncertainty with this system in both strength and placement making the forecast itself very uncertain beyond the generalities. The largest uncertainty that has the biggest impact to expected panhandles weather is the placement of the system. The first and currently held to be the most likely placement is that the system will be either north or south of the panhandles. This would lead to lighter precipitation and possible snow accumulations across the panhandles with higher accumulations either in KS or central TX to OK. Then there is the less likely solution that represent the Goldilocks zone in which the trough passes right across the panhandles. If this came to be then much higher precipitation and snow amounts would be possible across large swaths of the panhandles. The current probabilities is that the N or S options represent roughly 90% of the outcomes while the Goldilocks solution represent about 10% of solutions. So in regards to the current forecast we will represent the more likely solutions which is the lesser precipitation amounts. So for the current forecast we have the system entering the panhandles from the NW starting late Saturday morning and encompassing the whole panhandles by the evening. This should lead to light showers that start off as rain to rain/snow mix becomings snow by the overnight hours. This light snow then continues through the overnight and Sunday morning before it finally end NW to SE Sunday afternoon and evening. The current peak looks to be during the late hours of Saturday to early Sunday morning. However these times are far from certain as the timing of the whole system is still much in question. If the system arrives earlier or later this would impact snow amounts as more precipitation could fall as rainfall. So with current thinking the overall snowfall for the panhandles looks to be most likely 0 to 2 inches, this estimate will change as this system gets better sampled as it arrives to the west coast in a few days. Another feature of this weather system will be in the gusty winds it is likely to produce during its passage. The strength and direction of the winds remains uncertain as well but overall Sunday should see the higher winds while Saturday has weaker winds. Temperature wise Sunday is likely to be the coldest day as it is likely to have the most cloud cover and precipitation along with the cold air already sitting across the panhandles. Monday through Wednesday it is looking favorable for the pattern to shift to a zonal flow or slight ridge across the souther plains. This makes it more likely than not the panhandles will see drier and calmer weather conditions with sunny to mostly sunny skies. It can be expected that temperatures will rise in these conditions returning to more seasonable levels. Under such a pattern the winds are more likely to be on the weak side. SH && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1115 AM CST Wed Feb 7 2024 VFR conditions are expected through this period. A cold front will move in this afternoon and introduce southwesterly to west- southwesterly winds behind it. There is also a chance for showers ahead of and along the cold front, as well as breezy to windy conditions. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Amarillo TX 38 61 36 61 / 30 0 0 0 Beaver OK 39 66 34 60 / 30 0 0 0 Boise City OK 34 60 31 55 / 0 0 0 0 Borger TX 41 65 38 63 / 40 0 0 0 Boys Ranch TX 39 62 34 61 / 10 0 0 0 Canyon TX 37 61 35 61 / 20 0 0 0 Clarendon TX 41 64 38 63 / 40 0 0 0 Dalhart TX 35 60 32 57 / 10 0 0 0 Guymon OK 38 64 33 58 / 30 0 0 0 Hereford TX 36 61 33 60 / 10 0 0 0 Lipscomb TX 41 67 36 63 / 50 0 0 0 Pampa TX 40 63 38 61 / 50 0 0 0 Shamrock TX 41 66 38 65 / 30 0 0 0 Wellington TX 41 67 38 65 / 30 0 0 0 && .AMA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... TX...Wind Advisory until 7 PM CST this evening for TXZ001-006-011. OK...Wind Advisory until 7 PM CST this evening for OKZ001-002. && SHORT TERM...52 LONG TERM....98 AVIATION...52
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Amarillo TX 240 PM CST Wed Feb 7 2024 OKZ001>003-TXZ001>020-317-080845- Cimarron-Texas-Beaver-Dallam-Sherman-Hansford-Ochiltree-Lipscomb- Hartley-Moore-Hutchinson-Roberts-Hemphill-Oldham-Potter-Carson- Gray-Wheeler-Deaf Smith-Randall-Armstrong-Donley-Collingsworth- Palo Duro Canyon- 240 PM CST Wed Feb 7 2024 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. A Wind Advisory is in effect for the western and central Oklahoma Panhandle as well as most of the far western Texas Panhandle through 7 PM this evening due to sustained southwest winds around 35 mph with higher gusts. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Thursday through Tuesday. This Saturday and Sunday has increasing confidence in a weather system producing measurable snowfall across the panhandles which would create hazardous driving conditions .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not anticipated at this time.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
The automated weather observing station located three miles west of Dumas measured a wind gust of 60mph at 1635CST, and the mesonet site located three miles southeast of Dumas measured a wind gust of 61mph at 1616CST.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, February 2024
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1162378.