Freeze warnings are in effect in West Texas as a cold front brings the most frigid weather of the season to the region. The National Weather Service Office in Midland-Odessa issued a freeze watch for last night, and the El Paso office sent a special warning about the cold expected there.
David Hefner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Santa Teresa, N.M., office located near El Paso, says the cold front causes these low temperatures began in Canada. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Weather warnings went out last night. So what are we expecting?
David Hefner: Well, we had a cold front come down out of the northwest, basically originating over the North Pacific and came across the western Canadian provinces down through the Great Basin. And as of about midnight to 2 a.m. this morning, the cold front was through us and to our south and to Mexico.
So the cold air is in a place that maybe wasn’t quite as bad as we were originally forecasting, but we’ve seen winds early this morning gusting to 20 to 30 miles an hour, a few places even a little higher. And that gave us wind chills of around 15 to 30 degrees.
Now, we know about those winds here. That is a big factor. We’re seeing all of the Christmas decorations blowing around. Well, talk about that wind. It really does drop the temperature.
Yeah, it’s been spotty this morning. Like just in our general area here at our office, that hasn’t blown much. But as we get up closer to Las Cruces, up I-10, it’s blowing pretty good.
We have employees from up there that have come down and even their airport there has been having winds over 20 miles an hour. So it’s a little spotty.
But in general, winds of 15 to 20, gusts to 30, have brought the wind chill temperatures down quite a bit.
And into the overnight hours into Wednesday as well?
Well, fortunately, our winds, probably by around noontime today, will be diminishing and our low temperatures tomorrow, we’re looking at some of the coldest temperatures of the season so far. But fortunately, the winds should be pretty light.
So it’s going to be cold with the air temperature, but we shouldn’t have any of the winds around that add to the discomfort.
How unusual are these dips in temperature in the El Paso area this time of year?
It’s pretty normal. This year the airport, which is our official temperature, has not reached freezing yet, although most of the city has. And the airport usually averages its first freeze probably a month ago, like around November 13.
So that’s a little later than normal. But this isn’t too unusual to see these cold intrusions a couple of times each month during the winter.
Sometimes we even see snow.
Yeah. Yeah. This one was really dry. There was no moisture with it. So it was just a matter of watching for the cold temperatures.
Well, lastly, advice for people who not just live here, but a lot of people come through El Paso.
Well, yeah, like I said, it’s dry, so at least we don’t have to worry about any precipitation. It’s mainly just the cold.
If you’re traveling out on the highways, you know, it’s probably pretty smart to be prepared, have some extra clothes, maybe some blankets in your vehicle in case you break down or anything.
Also, if you have pets outside, those should be either brought inside or make sure they can stay warm.
