Dalhart Weather Review
By Aaron Graves
Note: This article originally appeared in "The County Times Two" a couple of weeks ago.
A copy of the “The Worst Hard Time” by Timothy Egan sits on my shelf alongside other books about the weather. If you have read it, then you know our little town is famous, being intimately involved in Dust Bowl years of the 1930's. Dalhart, along with Boise City, was among the hardest hit areas, and it is fascinating to read about what it was like to live through that decade.
Come to find out - 2014, some 79 years since the “Black Sunday” dust storm of 1935, will be remembered for a drought more historic than the Dust Bowl.
“The region’s period of long-term drought which began in late 2010 reached historic proportions by May 2014,” reads the year end weather review from the National Weather Service office in Amarillo, posted on their website. “The 43-month period from October 2010 to April 2014 was drier than any similar period on record for many sites in the Panhandles and surrounding areas – even drier than during the 1930's Dust Bowl and 1950's droughts of record.”
The U.S. Drought Monitor had declared the entire Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles in “exceptional drought” by Memorial Day weekend. In fact, several dust storms rolled through the area during the spring - very reminiscent of the Dust Bowl.
But all that changed abruptly at the end of May with a round of showers and thunderstorms. It was followed by fairly regular rainfall across the area for the rest of the year, making for a moderate summer and a mild winter.
Dalhart ended 2014 with 11.68” of precipitation. True, that is 5.91” below the 30 year normal (from 1981 through 2010), but it is the first time since 2011 we have received over 8” for the year.
The official winter solstice was back on Dec. 21 during a spring-like 61 degree day in Dalhart. I guess you could say Old Man Winter was delayed by the weather. But he wasn’t too far behind schedule. Snow arrived by the 23rd, just a trace created white streaks across the highway while dirt and tumbleweeds blew through the air. A second winter storm brought 1.5” of snow to Dalhart on Dec. 26. A third storm brought snow on the 30th and 31st - a total of 3”. In all, 4.5” of snow fell during December 2014, bring 0.33” of moisture.
December ended with an average high of 49.9 degrees and an average low of 23.9 degrees. Thanks to mild weather throughout the month, December was actually 2.5 degrees warmer than normal.
A fourth snow storm kicked off 2015 - a good 4” of wet, wet snow that fell on January 3rd - the equivalent of 0.39” of moisture. This broke an old snow and precipitation record from 1952, when Dalhart received 3” of snow (0.19” of moisture). The entire western half of the Panhandle got good coverage, with 8” in Boise City, 6” in Texline, 5” in Channing, and 6.5” in Dumas.
Drought conditions - not as severe as the first part of 2014, but still bad - continue across Dallam and Hartley Counties. May 2015 be the year to break this trend.
High and low temps the past three weeks
Dec 16: 48, 20
Dec 17: 53, 27
Dec 18: 43, 26
Dec 19: 46, 24
Dec 20: 46, 22
Dec 21: 61, 20
Dec 22: 49, 31
Dec 23: 39, 27
Dec 24: 46, 18
Dec 25: 57, 28
Dec 26: 33, 16
Dec 27: 35, 13
Dec 28: 47, 12
Dec 29: 40, 12
Dec 30: 23, 9
Dec 31: 21, 9
Jan 1: 35, 18
Jan 2: 40, 14
Jan 3: 39, 21
Jan 4: 30, 4
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