Wednesday night saw the return of winter weather for the Permian Basin, disrupting the spring-like weather that Odessans and Midlanders had been enjoying earlier in the week.
A cold front swept through West Texas Wednesday night, bringing with it high winds, thunderstorms and lots of dust.
Meteorologist David Hennig at the National Weather Service in Midland said Wednesday night’s conditions were apart of a jet stream that swept over the center portion of the United States, allowing there to be enough stability to give West Texans some decent rainfall showers that were severe.
A report from the website at http://www.interactivehailmaps.com/local-hail-map/odessa-tx/ mentioned that there was nickel-sized hail during Wednesday night’s storms which were located along a line extending from near Greenwood to 20 miles southeast of Odessa to near Crane.
The storms also had winds of up to 70 miles per hour in the Permian Basin.
“I got several thunderstorm wind gusts that we got at 67 miles per hour in Andrews and 60 miles in Reagan County and estimated 60 miles near Tarzan,” Hennig said. “60-70 mile an hour wind gusts was what we saw.”
The winds may have died down a little into Thursday.
However, most of the Permian Basin was under a wind advisory Thursday morning as well as Southeast New Mexico and eastern Culberson where northwest winds were from 25-35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.
Thursday’s high temperature was only 51 degrees while the low was 24.
“Wednesday was the head of the front,” Hennig said. “We’ve had the cold front moved through so we’re not expecting more thunderstorms. It’s been a return to winter as you can tell outside. It’s nice and cool so the winds are going to be down.”
Friday is expected to be warmer with sunny skies with the high being 57 and the low of 25.
“Thursday was definitely the coldest day with the high pressure behind the front moving in,” Hennig said. “Winds were gusty. Tonight, will be the coldest night with temperatures down into the 20s. It’ll be a cold start for the kids (Friday) morning. And then Friday, we get back to the 50s and 60s and 70s Saturday and Sunday so it’s just about a 10 degree warm up each day.”
The warmer weather should return by the weekend with highs on Saturday and Sunday expected to be 64 and 75, respectively.
“During that time period, we don’t have a chance for rain so things are gradually getting back more to where they used to be as we’ll see warming over the weekend,” Hennig said.
Tuesday and Wednesday’s temperature featured a high of 76 and 77, respectively, before the cold front moved in.
The cold front has been apart of a storm system that has moved across the country and brought heavy snow and a wintry mix for the Midwest including Kansas as well as the south-central plains and the Great Lakes Thursday.
“I’m looking at our area but stepping back, the storms that went through here, went through East Texas overnight and now it’s expected to move on to the Great Lakes and the east coast where they’re going to see some thunderstorms further south and then some more snow further north,” Hennig said. “It’s all part of the same system.”
