2012-02-12: Extreme winds in southern Texas

[Jeff Duda]

I have serious doubts as to the legitimacy of 150 kt wind gusts at an ASOS station in the big bend region of south Texas. There isn't much in the way of significant terrain, but there is a slope in the region, so I suppose this could be a function of orographic dynamics. However, I even doubt the anemometer at an ASOS station could survive 150 kt wind gusts. But, I could be wrong. If those winds are legitimate, that's quite the significant wind gust. That would surely do serious damage to the airport.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I'm relatively comfortable QAing out those observations. The peak wind that K6R6 reported was 149-150 kts, which is, as you noted, so far beyond the nearby wind obs to throw up a red flag. I'm not sure what the state record is, but I think that's probably beyond that. There was a high wind warning in effect for the Guadalupe mountains overnight last night into this morning for wind gusts up to 60 mph, but Sanderson isn't very close to Guadalupe Pass. There aren't any LSRs from MAF to indicate extreme damage around 6R6. Maybe some precip somehow managed to mess up the electronics of the anemometer enough for to it give erroneous obs.

 

[Bob Hartig]

There seems to be a build-up over the half-hour period shown by the link, beginning at 92 kts at 1848Z, so at least there's some sense of consistency. But it's consistency as in "consistently screwy." Current METARs across Texas show the highest surface winds at 20 kts up in the NW panhandle, and VADs aren't at all impressive. I can't imagine where such winds would come from, given that they were logged just an hour-and-a-half or so ago. My verdict: equipment failure. Someone go slap some sense into that anemometer.

 

[MClarkson]

And that station has a number of other sensors not working as well. If it was in proper mountains I might investigate further... but in fairly flat terrain, theres just no way.

 

[Brian McWatters]

The 6R6 ASOS is at the Terrell County Airport. The terrain is indeed rather flat. Here's a picture of the airport: