April Ended Up Being Windiest Month in Midland/Odessa in Years

If you were thinking there were a lot more sandstorms in Midland/Odessa last month, you were right, it was our area's windiest month in years.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, usually, March is our windiest month in West Texas but this year it was April 2022.

The National Weather Service in Midland reports that 27 out of the 30 days in April had maximum wind speeds that reached at least 20 mph. There were 24 days gusts topped 30 mph, and seven days gusts topped 40 mph.

That is a lot of wind even for a windy place like West Texas where there are no mountains or trees to stop the wind from gathering speed as it races across the plains of West Texas and the Panhandle and the plains of SE New Mexico too.

With precipitation being low and it being very dry, that means the sky was filled with dirt the majority of the days during April.

Maybe April sandstorms will bring May showers? One could only hope here in the desert of West Texas.

The last good rainfall in Midland/Odessa was last September, so that is the main reason for all the dirt in the air.

But we are not the only place in the state, Dallas/Ft. Worth also reported the windiest month in 25 years, and the windiest April since 1963.

Midland/Odessa had an average wind speed during April of 14 mph while Dallas/Ft. Worth recorded an average of 15.3 mph, and Amarillo topped the list in Texas at 16.5 mph.

So it is not only Midland/Odessa that saw a lot of wind in April, it was all over Texas.