Christmas Day 2012

Severe Weather and Flash Flooding Threat Continues in the Central and Southern Plains; Heavy Mountain Snow in the Intermountain West

Heavy rain and severe weather will continue across the central and southern Plains through the weekend. Tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and flash flooding will be the primary threats. Heavy mountain snow will push into the Intermountain West and portions of the central Rockies. Snow will linger into Monday across the central and southern Rockies. Read More >

Christmas Day Snow Event
On Christmas Day 2012, a low pressure system moved across the region bringing very cold temperatures and the first snow of the season to much of the Panhandles. This happened to be the second Christmas in a row where Amarillo recorded snow with 4.2 inches back in 2011 and 2.1 inches this year. This is only the 2nd time that Amarillo has reported snow on back-to-back Christmas Days, with the last time being in 1894 and 1895. Most of the area reported 1-2 inches of snow, but isolated areas received 3 or more inches especially near the Texas-New Mexico border. Below is a map of snowfall totals from across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. In addition to the snow, high winds caused blowing snow reducing visibilities less than 1/4 mile in places causing significant traffic delays across local highways and interstates. Wind gusts over 40mph were recorded in many areas across the region causing snow drifts to pile up multiple feet high. This same system brought blizzard conditions to Arkansas and tornadoes from Southeast Texas to Eastern Alabama.

North West Amarillo (courtesy Scott Plischke)	White Out conditions in Amarillo (courtesty of Daniell Raily Browning)
Borger, TX (courtesy of Nanner Boyett Natalie)	NWS Amarillo Office
Palo Duro Canyon (courtesy of Jennifer Wilkinson)	Sun Dog seen after the snow had fallen (follow the link for more information and pictures on sun dogs)

Christmas Day Snow Event

On Christmas Day 2012, a low pressure system moved across the region bringing very cold temperatures and the first snow of the season to much of the Panhandles. This happened to be the second Christmas in a row where Amarillo recorded snow with 4.2 inches back in 2011 and 2.1 inches this year. This is only the 2nd time that Amarillo has reported snow on back-to-back Christmas Days, with the last time being in 1894 and 1895. Most of the area reported 1-2 inches of snow, but isolated areas received 3 or more inches especially near the Texas-New Mexico border. Below is a map of snowfall totals from across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. In addition to the snow, high winds caused blowing snow reducing visibilities less than 1/4 mile in places causing significant traffic delays across local highways and interstates. Wind gusts over 40mph were recorded in many areas across the region causing snow drifts to pile up multiple feet high. This same system brought blizzard conditions to Arkansas and tornadoes from Southeast Texas to Eastern Alabama.

North West Amarillo (courtesy Scott Plischke)

White Out conditions in Amarillo (courtesty of Daniell Raily Browning)

Borger, TX (courtesy of Nanner Boyett Natalie)

NWS Amarillo Office

Palo Duro Canyon (courtesy of Jennifer Wilkinson)

Sun Dog seen after the snow had fallen (follow the link for more information and pictures on sun dogs)