Wind & fire weather to showers & storms to bitter cold & frozen precipitation (21-24 February 2022)

Wind & fire weather to showers & storms to bitter cold & frozen precipitation
21-24 February 2022

Warm, dry and windy conditions on President's Day created widespread critical fire weather Monday afternoon (February 21st). These conditions supported the development and spread of a grassfire on the west side of Amarillo, designated the Cadillac Fire, which destroyed 4 homes and 11 outbuildings. Thankfully, nobody was injured or killed by the fire. 

Despite the dry low-levels, a potent sub-tropical disturbance approaching the region from the west provided mid-upper level moisture and lift which was able to overcome the dry sub-cloud layer. In response, sprinkles, showers and even a few thunderstorms developed and raced northeastward across portions of the South Plains and Rolling Plains late Monday afternoon into Monday evening. In addition to locally enhancing the wind, the showers provided scattered light rainfall. Rain totals were mostly in the trace to several hundredths of an inch range, though a few locations did measure over a tenth of an inch. The rainfall recorded by the West Texas Mesonet the afternoon and evening of the 21st can be FOUND HERE.

Skies cleared Monday night and the leading edge of colder air slipped into the region early Tuesday on gusty northerly winds, several hours ahead of schedule. Lows reached the teens and 20s Tuesday morning, and it felt like the single digits for many, but temperatures did recover into the upper 30s and 40s for most thanks to abundant sunshine Tuesday afternoon. Where the front was latest to move through, highs approached 60 degrees over the far southwest South Plains.

The cold air aggressively deepened Tuesday evening, and temperatures bottomed out in the singles digits across the southwest Texas Panhandle and northern South Plains, while teens were common over the remainder of the South and Rolling Plains. It felt 10 to 20 degrees colder thanks to the breezy winds. In addition, as increasingly moist air returned northward above the very cold air settling into place, elevated sleet showers and thunderstorms developed across the eastern Permian Basin late Tuesday night. This activity raced northeastward, affecting the southeast South Plains and much of the Rolling Plains early Wednesday morning. 

The sleet covered roadways became very slick the morning of the 23rd, generally from just southeast of Lubbock (including Slaton) eastward into the Rolling Plains and southeast Texas Panhandle, as the below map shows. 

The wintry precipitation quickly shifted east, but clouds hung around much of the day on Wednesday and temperatures only "warmed" into the 20s at most locations. Where sunshine was a bit more prevalent, a few spots made it into the lower 30s across the western South Plains and southeast New Mexico.

Another cold night followed, down in the teens for most locations. Where skies remained mostly clear, across the southwest Texas Panhandle and northwest South Plains, temperatures tumbled down to around zero. Further east, clouds helped it stay "warmer" but they also brought pockets of freezing drizzle, freezing fog and light snow. The light wintry precipitation did create additional slick spots the morning of the 24th, primarily off the Caprock.