Texas is bracing for a powerful windstorm on Friday — one far more intense than the typical windy days we see this time of year.
Parts of West Texas and the Panhandle will face dangerously high wind speeds, strong enough to trigger widespread power outages, kick up dense blowing dust, and create extreme wildfire danger . It doesn’t stop there either, as gusty winds will extend eastward into parts of North, Central and South Texas as well. Here’s a close look at what to expect.
West Texas winds
As of noon Thursday, a strong upper-level low pressure system is already moving from the eastern Pacific Ocean into California, and it will continue to track eastward and strengthen over the next 24 hours. By Friday morning, the weather system will be sitting over the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, sending a Pacific cold front and high winds racing across the state.
The area of greatest concern will be from the Panhandle southward into West Texas, where cities like Amarillo, Lubbock, Plainview, Childress and Hereford are under a high wind warning for much of Friday. Sustained winds of 35 to 50 mph are expected, with wind gusts reaching 70 to 80 mph at times.
To put that in perspective, that means some wind gusts will be as strong as a Category 1 hurricane making landfall. While high winds are a common occurrence in West Texas , this storm is shaping up to be especially intense, even by the region’s standards…