Freeze Warnings are in effect across West Texas cold front brings the most frigid weather of the season to the region. The National Weather Service office in Midland-Odessa issued a frost watch for last night, and the El Paso office sent out a special warning about expected cold there.

David Hefner, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, near El Paso, says the cold front causing the low temperatures began in Canada. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity:

Texas Standard: Weather warnings were issued last night. So, what are we waiting for?

David Hefner: Well, we had a cold front coming from the northwest, basically starting from the North Pacific and moving through the Western Canadian provinces through the Great Basin. And between midnight and 2 a.m. this morning, the cold front passed through us, moving south and into Mexico.

So the cold air is in a place that maybe wasn’t as bad as we initially expected, but we saw some winds early this morning with gusts of 20 to 30 miles per hour, even a little higher in some places. And that gave us a wind chill of about 15 to 30 degrees.

Now we know these winds here. This is an important factor. We see all the Christmas decorations floating. Well, talk about that wind. This really brings the temperature down.

Yeah, it was spotty this morning. Like our general area here at our office, it hasn’t exploded much. But as we get closer to Las Cruces, on I-10, the wind is blowing pretty good.

We have employees from up there that have come down and even at their airport there have been winds over 20 miles an hour. So it’s a little uneven.

But in general, winds of 15 to 20, gusts up to 30, significantly reduced wind chill temperatures.

And overnight until Wednesday too?

Well, fortunately our winds, probably around noon today, will decrease and our temperatures will be low tomorrow, we are looking at some of the coldest temperatures of the season so far. But fortunately, the winds should be rather light.

So it’s going to be cold with the air temperature, but we shouldn’t have any wind around adding to the discomfort.

How unusual are these temperature drops in the El Paso area this time of year?

It’s pretty normal. This year the airport, which is our official temperature, hasn’t reached freezing yet, even though most of the city has. And the airport usually experiences its first freeze probably a month ago, around November 13th.

So it’s a little later than usual. But it is not uncommon to notice these cold intrusions several times a month during the winter.

Sometimes we even see snow.

Yeah. Yeah. This one was really dry. There was no humidity with it. So it was just a matter of monitoring the cold temperatures.

Finally, a tip for people who not only live here, but also those passing through El Paso.

Well, yes, like I said, it’s dry, so at least we don’t have to worry about precipitation. It’s mostly just the cold.

If you’re traveling on the highways, you know, it’s probably pretty smart to be prepared, to have extra clothes, maybe blankets in your vehicle in case of a breakdown or whatever.

Additionally, if you have pets outside, they should be brought inside or made sure they can stay warm.