Looking Back In History At Record Snows - April 1983.

March 31, 2022.
Burn Scar From The Grass Fire On March 28, 2022.
Looking Northeast From East Of Tatum, NM On Hwy 380.

On This Day In Weather History - April 1st:
New Mexico-

Pea to golf ball-sized hail lasting for six minutes in Hobbs, Lea County caused some light damage to windows, cars, and signs on this day in 1963.

1983: Hurricane-force winds blasted most of West Texas for much of this day. Bred by an intense cyclone north of the region, these winds swept over an area from San Angelo northwest to Midland, north to Lubbock and Amarillo.

Wind gusts in these areas frequently reached over 70 mph, with an incredible 88 mph measured at Schlemeyer Airfield located just north of Odessa. The high wind fanned countless grass fires (no information was provided on the extent or severity of these
fires), reduced visibilities to near zero at times in blowing sand and dust, snapped power poles and lines, blew roofs off several houses and buildings flipped mobile homes and an airplane, broke numerous windows, flattened billboards and fences blew down tree limbs and damaged thousands of trees and plants.

A bus driver and three persons were injured when the bus crashed into the back of a semi-trailer between Big Spring and Stanton. Three ambulances shuttled seven persons in near-zero visibility to a hospital after a 27 vehicle pileup on I-20 in Howard County. An Ozona man was hospitalized after touching a downed power line.

Incredibly, just four days later much of Southwest Texas would be buried by a historic snowstorm! El Paso recorded their largest snowstorm with 16.5" inches.

Looking Back At April 1983.
Record Cold & Snow - How Many Of You Remember This?



A four day long storm dumped 2.04" of rain on Artesia between April 5th and the 9th in 1983. Even more remarkable was the 15.5" of snow that fell. On the morning of the 6th we woke up to 7" on the ground. The thermometer dipped to 16ºF on the morning of 8th. Drifts of up to 18" were recorded.

I was living in Lakewood on our family farm/ranch at the time and I measured 15.9" of snowfall with 9" on the ground the mornings of the 5th and 6th. My lowest temperature was 17ºF on the morning of the 8th. 



Hope which is located 20 miles west of Artesia measured a storm total of 22.5" of snowfall and 2.26" of rainfall. 



Maljamar recorded 8.5" of snow from the storm.



Roswell recorded 5.0" of snow from the storm with 2" on the ground on the 6th and 7th.



The Carlsbad Airport measured 11.7" of snowfall out of the storm with 4" on the ground on the 6th and 7th. On the morning of the 8th the Airport recorded a low temp of 20ºF.



Hobbs recorded 9.0" of snowfall out of the storm. 



Capitan recorded 35.0" of snow out of the storm with 18" on the ground on the 4th. They dropped down to 14ºF on the 5th and 8th.



Ruidoso west of Roswell recorded 24.3" of snow from the storm with 23" on the ground on the 6th. On the morning of the 8th they dropped down to 2ºF.



Cloudcroft located 90 miles west of Artesia in the southern Sacramento Mountains measured a whopping 32.6" of snow out of the storm. 32" was on the ground on the 8th and on the morning of the 5th they dropped down to 7ºF. 



Even El Paso got in on the action with a snowfall storm total of 16.5". On the 7th they had 9" on the ground and dropped down to 23ºF on the morning of the 8th.

The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction!

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