The latest in a series of major winter storms and blizzards over the past several weeks across the United States has broken 110+ year-old records across parts of Texas and Kansas.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported a historic blizzard for the Texas Panhandle produced up to 21 inches of snow across the region with 19.0 inches falling in the city of Amarillo on Monday.
This was the second-most snow to fall within a 24-hour period, just behind the 19.3 inches that fell on March 25, 1934 in the city and the most in a single day in the month of February. The previous record was 12 inches on February 16, 1893.
It was also the third all-time heaviest snow event for the area behind 20.6 inches that fell March 25 and 26 of 1934.
"A very intense upper-level disturbance produced a band of heavy snow that set up over the central Panhandles from roughly Amarillo to Borger to Perryton during the early morning hours on Monday," the NWS said.
"Within this band of snow, snowfall rates approached two-three inches per hour, thundersnow was observed, and extreme blizzard conditions were observed, the NWS added.
The heavy snow combined with strong winds over 60 and 70 mph, resulting in visibilities of less than 50 feet at times for many locations, virtually crippling the entire region with nearly all roads in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles closed during the blizzard including Interstate 40 from the New Mexico border to the Oklahoma border and Interstate 27 from Amarillo to Lubbock.
Wind gusts associated with this historic blizzard peaked at 77 mph across parts of the Texas Panhandle with an official wind gust of 75 mph in Amarillo.
This resulted in incredible snow drifts, some of which, reportedly reached up to 10 feet in some areas, stranding many motorists who dared to hit the roads.
This major winter storm continued northeast Monday night into early Tuesday, dumping more than a half-foot of snow on top of 14.2 inches of snow that fell late last week in Wichita, Kansas.
This pushed the snowfall total for February 2013 up to 21 inches, which is not only the most snowfall for any month of February on record but for any month in the city, the NWS said. The previous monthly snowfall record was 20.5 inches set way back in February of 1913.
This same storm system was also responsible for producing a significant hail storm in the New Orleans area Sunday night and leading to the widespread threat for severe storms and tornadoes across Mississippi on Monday.
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