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Explainer: Why was it so windy in North Texas? And when will it end?

There's no storms in the forecast, but the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for all of North Texas until 7 p.m.

DALLAS — North Texas woke up to sunny skies on Thursday — and strong winds as if it were storming.

No severe weather was forecast for Thursday, or anytime soon, but gusts were expected to reach 40-50 mph for much of the day. 

The National Weather Service in Fort Worth issued a wind advisory for all of North Texas until 7 p.m. - which was later extended to midnight - as the strong breezes from the northwest were expected to continue through the day.

So what gives? 

What we saw Thursday and into Friday was, in part, an after-effect of the storm system that moved through North Texas early Wednesday morning. As that low pressure system moved through and into Arkansas, a high pressure system began to move through Texas.

The high winds were a result of what happens in between those two systems. The air under high pressure wanted to move to low pressure, essentially equalizing the atmosphere and creating, in this case, those strong northwest winds across North Texas.

WFAA meteorologist Greg Fields explained on Daybreak on Thursday morning:

Fueling the winds, that low pressure system that moved out of North Texas continued to strengthen near the Arkansas/Missouri border. As a result, strong winds across Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas continued all day.

Most of Oklahoma was expecting gusts of at least 50 mph through Thursday, with some areas of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles seeing gusts up to 60 mph.

On the back side of these strong winds, we'll have a nice Halloween weekend in store. Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-70s, with lows in the high 40s  — yes, the 40s — and those winds will eventually die down by Friday evening.

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