From thunderstorms to snow?!?

Boy did life get interesting in the past 24 hours!

We are tracking a handful of different events in the Wether Center this morning. First is the opportunity for showers and thunderstorms ahead of the next system that arrives on Saturday. As it looks right now, we will only need to worry about strong storms. As you can see from the graphic on the right, if you are here in Amarillo, or points to the east, gusty winds, small hail and cloud-to-ground lightning are the main concerns. The chances for any “severe” weather will be to our southeast, places like Childress and back toward Quanah still have a very slim chance of seeing a storm turn severe. The main concerns with severe weather will be damaging winds and larger hail. The tornado threat is incredibly minimal.

After Saturday, it looks like our next weather-maker will be here by Monday and into Tuesday of next week.

Another storm will swing by as we move through the day Tuesday, offering a reminder that it is still February. It will be accompanied by chance for snow. Yes, snow. Right now the computer weather models (GFS & EMCWF) are in pretty good agreement on storm track but not available moisture. The GFS has been rather agressive with snowfall totals in recent runs.

How agressive? One of the rendered models yesterday brought 5” – 11” of snowfall. The heaviest in a narrow band between Dumas and Borger.

Now, I’m not ready to jump on board with the GFS quite yet, but run-to-run numbers tend to suggest anywhere from 1” to 4” possible. On top of that, winds will be a factor as gusts could reach 35mph creating white-out conditions.

Of course, as always, we will be watching it as we move through the weekend and into next week.



Author of the article:


Nick Lilja

Nick is former television meteorologist with stints in Amarillo and Hattiesburg. During his time in Hattiesburg, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is a graduate of both Oregon State and Syracuse University that now calls Houston home. Now that he is retired from TV, he maintains this blog in his spare time.