Marathon Faces Unprecedented Weather Shift
As severe weather continued to batter the Great Plains on Thursday, residents of Marathon, Texas, experienced an astonishing temperature drop on Wednesday, accompanied by an unusual amount of hail, requiring the deployment of snow plows to clear the streets.
The temperature in Marathon plummeted over 50 degrees, dropping from around 105 degrees to the mid-50s in roughly an hour. Brian Curran, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Midland, Texas, explained to ABC News that the dramatic decrease was due to a severe hailstorm that struck the town.
“It was like an air conditioner,” Curran remarked, describing the sudden cooling effect.
Brad Wilson, chief of the Marathon Fire Department, told ABC News that the rapid shift in conditions made it feel as though summer had abruptly turned into winter.
“There was about two feet of hail on our main street right in the center of town. It looked like snow,” Wilson said. “We measured it with a tape measure last night before road crews came and plowed the roads.”
In addition to the hail, Wilson noted that the town received approximately 2 1/2 inches of rain in an hour on Thursday.
“It was interesting,” Wilson commented on the unusual weather.
Understanding Hail and Temperature Swings
Hail typically forms in warm seasons when daytime heat causes thunderstorms. Supercooled droplets are carried to the cold top of the cloud by updrafts, where they circulate and grow until they are heavy enough to fall to the ground.
Curran noted that such temperature swings are common in Texas and can be even more extreme. For instance, in February 2022, Austin experienced a drop from 88 to 32 degrees in 24 hours, the largest temperature swing ever recorded in the Texas capital.
The largest temperature swing in the United States occurred on January 14-15 in Loma, Montana, where the temperature rose 103 degrees in 24 hours, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Recent Severe Weather Impact
The Memorial Day weekend saw severe storms causing at least 20 fatalities across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas. Officials reported at least 25 tornadoes across these five states over the holiday weekend.
In Valley View, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Dallas, seven people died, and more than 100 were injured due to severe weather, including multiple tornadoes, on Saturday night. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued disaster declarations for 106 counties, noting that over 200 homes or structures were destroyed, and another 120 were damaged statewide.
Power Outages and Forecast
The storms left more than 600,000 Oncor customers without power. By Thursday afternoon, Oncor had restored power to over 480,000 customers.
More severe weather is forecast for the Midwest on Monday, with heavy rain and severe weather predicted for much of Texas and southeast Colorado on Thursday afternoon. Cities from Lubbock to Abilene and San Angelo are at the highest risk for large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes into the evening.
Several flash flood warnings were issued north of Dallas and in New Orleans on Thursday. The severe weather threat will shift slightly east on Friday, affecting much of central and southeastern Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley.
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