Powerful Pacific System Impacting the West; First Significant Snow for Portions of the East

Power Pacific system will continue to bring significant impacts for Pacific Northwest into northern California the remainder of the week. Dangerous coastal affects, heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow continues. Meanwhile, a storm across the east is set to bring the first accumulating snow to many higher elevations of the Catskills into the central Appalachians. Read More >

Microburst Impacts Amarillo on April 16

A preliminary National Weather Service survey determined that a very localized microburst, packing winds between 65 and 70 mph, was responsible for some damage across southeast sections of Amarillo during the late afternoon hours of Monday, April 16. A microburst is a downdraft (sinking air) in a shower or thunderstorm that is less than 2.5 miles in scale. Some microbursts can pose a threat to life and property, but all microbursts pose a significant threat to aviation. Although microbursts are not as widely recognized as tornadoes, they can cause comparable, and in some cases, worse damage than some tornadoes produce. In fact, wind speeds as high as 150 mph are possible in extreme microburst cases. We would like to thank the Amarillo/Potter/Randall Office of Emergency Management for sending two of the damage images below.

RADAR IMAGES