Big Snow in Big Bend

An upper level low pressure trough produced winter weather over a portion of Texas that doesn't see snow very often. Last night Winter Storm Warnings were in effect in the Big Bend area of Texas for heavy snow in areas west of the Pecos River, and a wider area was under Winter Weather Advisories.

The storm delivered as promised. Eight to ten inches of snow was measured in the higher elevations of southwest Texas. Many other locations from El Paso to San Angelo set daily snowfall records. Granted, many of the daily snowfall records for that part of Texas are in the one to two inch range and a number of them date back 40 to 60 years. Four to five inches of snow fell in the San Angelo area, and observers in El Paso measured 2 to 4 inches of snow. The official snow fall in San Angelo was 2.8 inches, breaking the old record of 0.4 inches in 1972.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...UPDATE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX
200 PM CST FRI JAN 4 2013 /100 PM MST FRI JAN 4 2013/

...PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SNOWFALL REPORTS FROM LOCAL OBSERVERS AS OF 2 PM CST FRIDAY...

INCHES       LOCATION       COUNTY     STATE
--------------------------------------------
0.50         SNYDER         SCURRY      TX
1.00         MONAHANS       WARD        TX
3.00         ARTESIA        EDDY        NM
6.50         BIG LAKE       REAGAN      TX
2.00         SEMINOLE       GAINES      TX
3.00         ALPINE         BREWSTER    TX
4.00         MARFA          PRESIDIO    TX
4.00         RANKIN         UPTON       TX
4.50         VAN HORN       CULBERSON   TX
6.00         SANDERSON      TERRELL     TX
6.00         FORT STOCKTON  PECOS       TX
5.50         CARLSBAD       EDDY        NM
10.0         TERLINGUA      BREWSTER    TX
3.00         EUNICE         LEA         NM
1.00         TATUM          LEA         NM
4.00         LOVING         LEA         NM
4.00         JAL            LEA         NM
10.0         FORT DAVIS     JEFF DAVIS  TX

Other daily snowfall records were Abilene with one inch of snow, tying the record set in 1958; Dalhart. also with one inch of snow tying the record set in 1957; and a trace in Austin Camp Mabry, tying the record set in 1972. The official snowfall amount in El Paso was 2.9 inches. also a new record for the date. While El Paso has an average annual snowfall of only 6.6 inches, it has experienced some big snows. On December 13-14, 1987 a whopping 22.4 inches of snow fell, with 16.8 inches of that in a 24-hour period.