Dalhart Weather Review
By Aaron Graves
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| Saturday's dust storm was so think you could barely see the Dairy Queen sign just down the road. |
Three dust storms in one week! Such is the month of March on the Texas panhandle. It is a case of March Madness, and I don’t mean basketball. Let’s review, shall we?
First, we went from a bone chilling low of 4 degrees on the March 3, to a high of 80 degrees under calm, clear, blue skies on March 10. And just when we thought the beautiful weather was here to stay - dust storms!
A cold front blew into town just after lunch on Tuesday, March 11. Our winds averaged an impressive 23.9 mph, with a peak gust of 56 mph recorded at the airport, according to the Amarillo office of the National Weather Service. The air was full of dirt, but the nasty part of the storm stayed south. By the time it reached Amarillo, there was a rolling dust cloud ahead of the front.
Saturday’s storm was not as nice to us. Once again, a cold front pushed through the area, and this time it literally ripped the dirt from beneath our feet and threw it at our faces. At one point, a sustained wind of 43 mph was recorded. Overall, our winds for the day averaged 19.9 mph, with a peak gust of 58 mph.
As I was writing this article on Tuesday, March 18, for the Wednesday "The County Times Two" newsletter, we were forecast to undergo yet another day of high winds and blowing dust. Sure enough, the northern sky turned brown around 2 p.m., and the beginnings of a massive dust storm rolled through Dalhart.
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| Instead of purple and orange hues, Saturday's sunset was an eerie shade of gray, thanks to the dust storm and some low clouds. |
Since 2005, the Amarillo NWS has issued five "dust storm warnings" for the Texas panhandle. Three of those five were issued over the past week, this according to the Amarillo NWS Facebook page. So, what is up? Why the sudden shift from blue skies to brown? Is this normal, or a sign of something more sinister?
Well, don’t panic yet. As long-term residents know, we are entering our “windy season”. That’s right, we actually have such a thing according to Todd Lindley, Science and Operations Officer at the Amarillo NWS office. “The spring season is the windiest time of year here on the southern Great Plains,” Lindley explained, and March is just the beginning.
“April has the highest average monthly wind speed at Dalhart with 13.7 mph,” Lindley continued. “A local study we have done shows that high wind events - those with sustained winds equal or greater than 40 mph and some of which bring blowing dust - occur most frequently during the month of April, so the peak of the wind season is really just around the corner!”
In addition, not all cold fronts are created equal. Some generate stronger winds than others. To understand this, just think of how you get toothpaste out of its tube every morning. You squeeze. The harder you squeeze, the faster the toothpaste comes out.
Likewise, cold air sinks, and the pool of cold air behind a front ends up squeezing the air at the ground. Naturally, the air at the surface rushes away from the pressure, creating wind. Still “these recent cold fronts associated with dust storms have not been tremendously different from the many other cold fronts that have swept across the panhandle this season,” Lindley said.
Basically, we are experiencing normal cold fronts during a normally windy time of year. So, why the dirt? Could it be the drought? Are we losing grassland to the north?
“Great question!” Lindley answered. “It does seem that the deep and very persistent drought has reduced ground cover over parts of the High Plains, especially in southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, as well as over parts of northeastern New Mexico and the western Oklahoma panhandle. Local agricultural experts have been reporting this to us for some time, and late last year we started seeing remarkable images of dust storms from that corner of the High Plains.”
Now can we panic? Should we be preparing for a new Dust Bowl?
“I do not think we are headed toward anything like the 1930's Dust Bowl,” Lindley answered. “Generally, improved agricultural and land use practices make the likelihood of 1930-type dust storms very unlikely, at least with respect to frequency, widespread intensity and duration. That is not to say that during periods of very deep drought, such as now, localized dust storms reminiscent of that period will not occur, and in fact, they have.”
No need to pack up the family and head for California. Just remember that blowing dust can create problems when traveling, and conditions can go from good to bad in a short amount of time.
UPDATE: The University of Wisconsin-Madison posted a detailed write up on the March 18th dust storm. Follow this link and click on the top satellite image to watch what a dust storm looks like from space.
UPDATED FORECAST: Talk about an ever-changing forecast, this one did a complete 180 since Tuesday. Look for a high in the 60's on Friday with breezy conditions (yep, I said breezy, gusts up to 35 mph). Saturday and Sunday will see a cool down, possibly into the upper 40s, and we have a chance of freezing drizzle Saturday night.
High and low temps the past week:
Mar 10: 80, 27
Mar 11: 69, 35
Mar 12: 54, 24
Mar 13: 69, 25
Mar 14: 63, 41
Mar 15: 67, 32
Mar 16: 54, 29
This blog original appears every Wednesday in "The County Times Two" newsletter. To subscribe, contact Robin Scott at thecountytimestwo@live.com. This Blogspot edition might include updated forecasts and additional information than appeared in the newsletter.
Follow me on Facebook at "Dalhart Cloud Chasing" and on Google+ at "Aaron Graves (Dalhart Cloud Chasing)" to view photos of local weather and wildlife. Thanks to all of you who already do!
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