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Dalhart Weather Review

By Aaron Graves

Did you enjoy spring? I believe it happened on Friday of last week, sandwiched between a blinding dust storm before and summer-like heat afterwards. Friday was the perfect spring day. Blue sky. Calm wind of 7 mph. High of 78 degrees. Not to hot. Not to cold. No dirt. 

It seems to me that the ordinary, beautiful spring day is becoming a rare weather event around these parts! I am exaggerating, of course. Most days have been nice, even the hot ones. We tied our daily high temperature record on Sunday, May 4, with a high of 96, according to a post on Twitter from the National Weather Service office in Amarillo. 

A tree was blown down during the
April 26 dust storm. Photo by
Sandy Milanesi.

Even the heat is preferable to blowing dust. When I wrote this article (Tuesday afternoon), the wind was picking up, and I could see dirt being lofted into the air on the southern horizon. Fortunately, however, it was a small-scale event, and we did not get the kind of sky-browning dust storm we had to endure on April 26.

Blowing dirt on April 26 prompted a “Dust Storm Warning” from the NWS, the fourth such warning this year. The automated weather station at the Dalhart airport recorded sustained winds of 40 mph. Keep in mind, that is not a wind gust, but a sustained wind that just kept on blowing. Our peak wind gust was 59 mph. Law enforcement reported to the NWS that visibilities were less than a quarter mile at times. 

The wind took out a giant tree in the alley between Peters and Conlon near 4th Street. Fortunately, the tree did not fall on any structures, but it tore up the power lines. It yanked the lines down with such force that it ripped the electrical meter box off a nearby house. 

After the dust storm, we actually got some rain. If you blinked, you missed it. A small rain shower moved through on Thursday, May 1, and the airport recorded 0.01”. That brings our year-to-date precipitation total up to 0.30”.

April ended dry with only 0.11” of precipitation, about half of that from an inch of snow back on the 14th. We fell 0.97” short of the 30 year average - 1.08” - for the month of April. 

April 2014 ended a degree warmer that the 30 year average. We had an average daily high of 71.5 degrees and an average daily low of 37.9 degrees. (Average those two numbers together, and you get 54.7 degrees, which is the number used to compare overall temperature for the month.) Our hottest days in April were the 12th and 26th, each with a high of 88 degrees. 

What can we expect for May? Our 30 year average precipitation for the month is 2.24”. However, we haven’t seen anything near that over the past five years. Our best May in recent memory was 2010, with 1.67” of rain. Our average high over the past five years has varied from the mid 70’s to the low 80’s. 

UPDATE: For the rest of this week, high temperatures will stay in the upper 70's to lower 80's through Sunday. We have a slight chance of thunderstorms Sunday evening. A cold front expected on Sunday will drop us back into the 60's on Monday. 

A quick correction: In last week’s article, I used the term “D5 - exceptional drought” in reference to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The correct term is “D4 - exceptional drought”. 

High and low temps the past week

Apr 29: 60, 37

Apr 30: 61, 33

May 1: 59, 36

May 2: 78, 32

May 3: 90, 42

May 4: 96, 49

May 5: 95, 52

Comparing May (avg. high, avg. low, rain, snow)

2013: 82.7, 48.2, 0.44”, Trace

2012: 76.0, 43.8, 1.17”, 0”

2011: 82.5, 45.1, 0.03”, Trace

2010: 77.8, 47.6, 1.67”, 0”

2009: 77.6, 48.3, 0.23”, 0”

Total precip. for 2014: 0.30”

May (to date): 0.01”

April: 0.11”

March: 0.09”

February: 0.08”

January: 0.01”