Texas Panhandle Winter Storm Warning (again)

[Karen Politte]

The Texas Panhandle is set for another impressive snow event beginning tonight Monday March 14th, and peaking around the evening of Tuesday March 15th.

What an amazing winter the Amarillo area has had - I don't know snowfall totals but I'm sure they must be impressive.

AMA NWS Homepage

Gene and I are seriously looking at doing a snow chase tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) afternoon, taking a drive out from OUN to the AMA area for some late-winter/early-spring snowfall. With amounts expected to be over 10" in places, it's hard to ignore......especially for two weather-starved Normanites.

As an aside - does anybody remember any other particularly snowy Texas Panhandle winters - and, if so - what sort of implications it may have held for the following tornado season out there?? Pure crystal-ball speculation, I know......but fun.

KR

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Needless to say... that pretty much blows away my camping/hiking trip

http://www.convectionconnection.com/SPRINGBREAK/

Aaron

 

[Jay McCoy]

Karen,

Except for back in oct-nov we havent had hardly any snow. it has been a quiet winter. We were 83 on saturday. we have had mostly above normal temps this year so far.

This is shaping up to be our biggest storm of the winter. Some areas may get 12"+. Most of it should be after midnight tonight which means not much traffic to help melt it off the strees until rush hour. Ground temps are cooling enough now with last nights snow that this shouldnt have a big problem sticking.

As for how winter effects our storm season. the one big thing I have noticed in all the years I have chased here is the more moisture we have in feb-april the further west the dryline stays instead of mixing east into west Oklahoma. A wet march = dryline on NM/Tx border which bodes well for our storm season :wink:

Anybody heading to the mountains for a late ski trip will have a ton of powder to play in (if you can get there). A few feet in the rockies today and tonight.

 

[Dan Cook]

It's sad that you guys are getting more snow than we are. :cry:

 

[George Tincher]

What's even more sad is that in December, January and February, many areas had hardly no snow. And now that Spring is almost here and we are ready for thunderstorms, now it decides to start snowing every other day. LOL. That's the worst combo of all.

 

[Jason McKittrick]

Did anyone see the graphic the weather channel had last week on snowfall in the northern plains. They said that Bismark has not yet seen a 3" snowfall this season.

Here in Omaha we had a fourteen incher, which was a top ten storm for us, in January and almost nothing since.

 

[Jeff Wear]

2000-01 is the last big snow year I can recall for Amarillo....they had a 20" snowfall right after Christmas that year. As I recall the following spring was huge in the northern Plains (especially MN and IA - and there were some big events in NE and KS as well). We were ridged out a lot down here - but there were a few decent days in the southern Plains (5/4-6, 5/20, 5/27, 5/29, 6/3-5).

 

[Jeff Lawson]

Here in Omaha we had a fourteen incher, which was a top ten storm for us, in January and almost nothing since.

If you look at the climate data for Omaha, the snowfall deficit isn't all that large (for the time being), thanks to that one big storm. I think there have been a couple of smaller snow events that have affected the north side of town since then (Valley, for example, is actually running a surplus), but here in Bellevue we've only seen accumulating snow once (February 8) since the January storm. If you include the small storm at the end of November, that's literally ALL the show we've seen this year. Three events.

I notice Norfolk, NE is running 13.5" below normal. If I remember correctly, NE Nebraska missed out on the big storm.

 

[Colin P.McIntyre]

If the snow up here stays away till after Saterday i will be doing yard
work.Increadable warm temps in Alberta the last few weeks.

 

[Joel Wright]

Here in the Quad Cities we are exactly -17" for the season so far. We've had one 6" snowfall in January. Other than that we've had nothing but 1" dustings slowly adding up.

 

[Karen Politte]

Here's the beginning of the AMA Fcst Discussion for Tue AM:

------------------------------------------------

.DISCUSSION...
AS THE BARD WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE SAID /VERY
LIKELY THE LATTER CASE/...

...FIE! CONTEMPTIBLE WHITE SNOWBEAST...BEGONE!
THY ICY CORE DOTH REEK OF RANK TREACHERY.

THE SNOWBEAST /AKA UPPER TROUGH/ APPARENTLY LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF
FREE VERSE AND WINTER WEARY FORECASTERS AS SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL
CONTINUES ACROSS MUCH OF THE FORECAST AREA.

------------------------------------------------

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

KR

 

[Jay McCoy]

I already have a good 6-7 inches at my house and we are expecting another 6-7 by this evening. Heavy snow bands continue to build to the SW into eatern and central new mexico so I dont see an end for another 18-24 hrs. The uppper low seems to be crawling across SE arizona. the roads are starting to buld up a bit. I-40 is closed on the Tx/Nm border into Tucumcarri and Santa Rosa, NM. Good thing its spring break or we would have a ton of school closings. To go from 83 on saturday to this is CRUEL!!! Oh I need a supercell. and now maybe some more snow coming on friday!!

 

[Karen Politte]

I already have a good 6-7 inches at my house and we are expecting another 6-7 by this evening. Heavy snow bands continue to build to the SW into eatern and central new mexico so I dont see an end for another 18-24 hrs. The uppper low seems to be crawling across SE arizona. the roads are starting to buld up a bit. I-40 is closed on the Tx/Nm border into Tucumcarri and Santa Rosa, NM. Good thing its spring break or we would have a ton of school closings. To go from 83 on saturday to this is CRUEL!!! Oh I need a supercell. and now maybe some more snow coming on friday!!

Jay - thanks for this update. Perhaps you could keep us up to speed on here? Gene and I are shooting out your way at 12noon today when I finish work for a late-season snowchase!

KR

 

[Jay McCoy]

Karen,
As of 10:30 central we have very heavy snow bands along I-40 from Amarillo east to Shamrock with winds of 15-20mph so you should drive into at times almost whiteout conditions coming into the panhandle. Radar shows good snow still from central NM all the way to the Oklahmo border. some of it may actually be convective snow since clovis radar is in precip mode and not clear air. make sure you have your SUV and a jar of beatnut butter in case you get stuck :lol:

The snow that is falling now is large wet snowflakes. I-40 east is still open.

You may not be able to see much but here is a tower cam from downtown.
http://www.kvii.com/weather/683492.html

 

[Dan Cook]

I'm jealous. :x