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Severe Thunderstorms Possible in the South Central U.S.; Wildfire Smoke Impacts in the North Central U.S.; Severe Space Weather

Scattered severe thunderstorms may bring large hail and isolated damaging winds this weekend over parts of the south central U.S. Smoke from Canadian wildfires will bring air quality issues to parts of the north central U.S. this weekend. Moderate to Severe geomagnetic storm conditions will remain possible into early Monday following a strong coronal mass ejection from the sun. Read More >

Overview

On October 24, 2019, a strong closed 500mb low pushed across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles while a surface cold front provided a surge of cold air across the area. Lift along the surface boundary paired with the mid-level moisture allowed precipitation to form in the far northwestern Panhandles as early as 1AM Thursday morning on October 24, 2019. However, the main event was the banding that occurred across the central Panhandles from southwest to northeast. Enhanced lifting from the surface, interacting with the upper level system and very cold temperatures brought multiple heavy bands of snow along with thundersnow to the Panhandles. By 9 AM, the first sign of snow in the southwest Texas Panhandle appeared on radar reflectivity and this led to hours and hours of snowfall before ending the heavy banding around 2 AM Friday morning October 25, 2019. Lingering snow flurries continued in the far eastern Texas Panhandle through midday Friday. Snowfall amounts ranged from 1” in Boise City, Oklahoma as well as Cactus and Howardwick, Texas to 11” in Booker and Miami, Texas. A tricky aspect to this event were the strong winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 40 mph across the area, which made snowfall measurements very difficult due to blowing snow causing drifts of a foot or more in localized areas.

 

 

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