As the end of the week nears, a change in the weather is headed Amarillo’s direction. By this time on Saturday temperatures will be about 10 degrees cooler and rain will be tapering off in the city.
Yup. Rain!
As it looks right now, a cold front is set to move across the high plains on Friday afternoon/evening. As it does it will trigger showers and storms across the high plains. The best news is the severe weather threat is rather low. The main threats as we move through your Friday and into Saturday are heavy rains, small hail and gusty winds. That said, it bears watching closely.
The models are still indicating a warmer layer aloft which mitigates the hail threat (you need cold air aloft to make hail since it is, afterall, ice). But the winds should be rather gusty with how fast some of these storms could be moving..
The other interesting note is that a few of the models show storms “training” over the same areas during the evening and overnight hours on Friday. That means that as one storm moves through a spot, another cruises in right behind it to drop more rain on the same area.
Right now, with only a few models depicting this scenario, flooding isn’t an immanent threat. But, it is worth mentioning it. So despite the fact that storm motion will be rather quick, there is still a concern about flash flooding should this scenario play out.
So, for Friday, it will start out like Thursday – mild and clear – but clouds will be on the increase as into the afternoon. By dinner time a few showers and storms will begin to fire along the Texas / New Mexico border. As it looks right now, by about the 7pm to 9pm hours the storms will begin to roll through Amarillo. Keep this in mind as you head out to watch the kids play football on Friday night.
Again our main concerns are high wind, small hail and heavy downpours.
We’ll watch all of this closely as everything develops. Keep checking back for updates!
