You Won’t Believe All These Crazy El Paso Weather Extremes

El Paso got a little taste of winter with Thanksgiving this year which, of course, freaked everybody out.

El Paso has pretty mild winters so, when we do get a cold front or any kind of winter storm, everyone is totally unprepared. Today it got a little chilly and rainy ... we even had a little snow dusting the top of the mountains ... but it really wasn't that bad.

People who moved here from truly cold climates didn't even notice.

El Paso can have cold days with true, winter weather though. Despite being in the desert, we can also have some torrential rain and the wind gets crazy.

Just in case you're curious, here are the most extreme weather events El Paso has seen according to official records:

RAIN - On average, El Paso gets about 8 inches of rain per year. The most we ever got in one day was 6.5 inches in 1881. The most in a year was over 18 inches in 1884 and the most in a month was 8+ in 1881.

I think 2006 should have made at least one of those categories, I'm pretty sure we got 10 inches in one day back then and probably broke some of those other records too.

SNOW - Yes, we do get snow and more regularly than you would think for a climate that's hot AF. It's gone about 10 minutes after it hits the ground but it happens. When it comes to that, we got over 18" in one day back in '87 and over 35" between '82 and '83.

Wind - Our windy season, truly, blows. The highest recorded wind gust was 84mph. It happened in 1977 and then again in 2010. New Mexico beat us though with a 104mph gust in 2019, recorded about 40 miles or so from EP.

Temperatures - The highest was 114 in 1994, (I think we may have since beaten that one but, who am I to argue with the government?), the lowest temp was -8 in 1962.