514 FXUS64 KAMA 181134 AFDAMAArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Amarillo TX 634 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
...New UPDATE, AVIATION...
.UPDATE... Issued at 634 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
Shower and thunderstorm activity is starting to decrease in coverage this morning. Most of the rain is still falling across the central/eastern Texas Panhandle with more isolated to scattered showers further south and west. Most of the rain this morning should begin to dissipate or move into western Oklahoma by mid morning. The ongoing forecast for today remains on track.
Muscha
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.UPDATE... Issued at 340 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
Widespread rain showers and isolated storms continue to move east along and north of I-40 this morning. Observed rain rates with the ongoing activity has been upwards of a quarter inch per hour, so flooding concerns are minimal through the rest of the morning if these rates continue. Scattered rain showers continue to develop over eastern New Mexico and are moving east towards the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. Forecast rain chances have been updated through the morning based on observations and latest hi-res models.
Muscha
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.KEY MESSAGES... Issued at 1236 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
- Slightly cooler temperatures in the 70s to low 80s are expected Thursday due to cloud cover and a cold frontal passage.
- Storms still possible over the weekend and into early next week, before a possible drying period.
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.SHORT TERM... (Today through Friday night) Issued at 1236 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
Lingering showers and storms tonight as we have about 500-1000 J/kg of MLCAPE left over. Environment is mainly elevated overnight with low clouds lingering across much of the Panhandles. Further south there is some outflow that could trigger some new storms through the night. To the north, another shortwave push will bring more rounds of showers and storms overnight to the OK Panhandle. These showers may linger overnight into the mid morning hours. As the atmosphere stabilizes more further south, we`ll still have the overall boundary holding in place along the I-40/HWY60 corridor. The challenge will be if we get enough heating tomorrow to trigger more afternoon/evening storms along the boundary, or if we`re too worked over and those morning showers linger too long for us to reheat back up and destabilize enough to get storms. Deterministic and CAMs are at odds, with the CAMs being more bearish on the storms developing. Current pops to reflect the more bearish scenario for Thursday. Either way, with the front through and all the moisture from yesterday and early today we`re looking at highs in the 70s for the most part, with lower 80s in the southern Panhandle.
As we move into Friday the trough axis will start to move east into Oklahoma and we`ll begin to get a ridge build over the Panhandles, with mainly westerly flow to start. Overall, temperatures will rebound back into the mid 80s, and with the ample moisture that we`ve received as well as some increased moisture moving in from NM, we could get some isolated to scattered showers Friday evening and overnight. The southwest Panhandles would be the most favored, but will not rule out this just about anywhere.
Weber
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.LONG TERM... (Saturday through Wednesday) Issued at 1236 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
Overall for the extended we will be in a transition period as the ridge attempts to rebuild over the south central CONUS. This still will not be without challenges as subtle waves in the west to northwest flow continue to push across the Panhandles and could trigger some afternoon showers and storms. As we move into mid next week, it does appear that we`ll be looking at another weather system that may track just north of our area, then dive down south over the central OK area, and provide more of a backdoor cold front. This pattern also supports much lower probability of pops in the extended. Still, would not that at least Saturday and Sunday have some level of storm chances, especially in the eastern Panhandles.
Weber
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.AVIATION... (12Z TAFS) Issued at 634 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
Low clouds are possible at all sites with brief reductions down to MVFR to potentially IFR ceilings through the remainder of the morning. Rain showers may move over the sites for a few hours, but visibility restrictions are not expected. Cloud cover will generally clear out after 18z. Winds over the next 24 hours are expected to be light around 10 kts or less.
Muscha
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.AMA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... TX...None. OK...None. &&
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SHORT TERM...89 LONG TERM....89 AVIATION...05
NWS AMA Office Area Forecast Discussion