National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Rare Southern U.S. Winter Storm; Dangerous Cold Weather For Much of the Eastern U.S.; Critical Fire Weather for Southern California

A rare winter storm impacting the Southern U.S. will move offshore Wednesday morning. Behind the storm, arctic air will continue encompassing the eastern two-thirds of the Nation with only a slow return to normal temperatures expected by the end of the week. Moderate to strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity will maintain Critical fire weather conditions in southern California into Thursday. Read More >

Amarillo, TX

Weather Forecast Office

Rare Late April Snowfall and Blizzard

Weather.gov > Amarillo, TX > Rare Late April Snowfall and Blizzard

Overview

A very strong late season low pressure system moved across the Texas Panhandle on the weekend of April 29-30.

 

Heavy snow began to fall in the far northwest Panhandles on Saturday morning, April 29th. Snow expanded southeast to Amarillo quickly Saturday morning, but accumulations were minimal or didn’t occur except for the northwest areas through the day Saturday. Snow began to stick quickly in central Panhandles including Amarillo after sunset on Saturday. Winds increased Saturday night as the storm deepened rapidly as it passed over the region and winds gusted to 50 to 70 mph (highest northwest) late Saturday night into Sunday morning. This led to white-out and blizzard conditions in the northwest before conditions improved Sunday afternoon. Event snowfall totals ranged from less than 1” in the southeast to near 12” in the far northwest.

 

The latest snowfall of an inch or more for the Amarillo area was March 6th, 1917.


Radar Loop

 

Click on photos to enlarge

Image Image Image

Wheeless, Oklahoma

(courtesy of Stuart Hutchison)

Channing, Texas 

(courtesy of Sandra Richmond)

Stratford, Texas 

(courtesy of Savannah Copley)

Local Snow/Wind Reports:

Pan, zoom in/out, and click on icons for more detail

View larger map

 

Snow/Ice

   
Image Image

Photos & Video:

 

Photo Photo Photo Photo
Oklahoma South of Elkhart, KS 
(courtesy of Esmeralda Marquez)		 Dalhart, Texas
(Courtesy of Mindy Rose)		 Dalhart, Texas
(Courtesy of Stephanie Ortez)		 Elkhart, Kansas
(Courtesy of Davey Wright)

Environment

More Photos and Environmental Data Coming Soon

Synoptic summary coming soon.

Environment Environment Environment
Figure 1: April 30th: 00Z KAMA Sounding Figure 2: April 30th: 00Z 850 mb chart Figure 3: April 30th: 00Z 700 mb chart
Environment Environment Environment
Figure 4: April 30th: 12Z KAMA Sounding Figure 5: April 30th: 12Z 850 mb chart Figure 6: April 30th: 12Z 700 mb chart
Environment Environment Environment
Figure 7: Caption Figure 8: Caption Figure 9: Caption


 

nws logo Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site.		 nws logo

AMA RSS Feed  AMA RSS Feed