Record Snow, December 7, 1998

n December 11, 1998, 9.75" of snow was recorded at the Midland International Airport (location of the Midland/Odessa National Weather Service Office). This snowstorm brought the heaviest one day totals, and the most for the month of December ever recorded locally. The previous record amount of snow occurred on January 24, 1974 when 6.8" of snow fell, January 9 1955 with 5.9", and November 16 1980 with 5.7". The rainfall equivalent from this record snowfall was a very welcomed 0.50".

snow cover as seen from the GOES 8 satellite

image courtesy of the TNRCC

Clear skies over west Texas and southeast New Mexico on December 12th clearly showed the extent of the snowfall. This is a high resolution visible image from the TNRCC, showing the snow coverage at 1800Z or 12pm CST. This snow covered an area from west of the Interstate 10/20 junction (near the city of Kent, Texas) to the city of Jal, New Mexico. At both of these places, 11" was measured. The snow coverage extended northeast to just north of Andrews, to northeast of Big Spring. The snow coverage then went southwestward to between Garden City and Big Lake, to near Fort Stockton, to the northern Davis Mountains.