Amarillo, TX 79178 Weather

Key Messages

Issued at 1153 PM CDT Tue Oct 20 2026

- Above average temperatures expected today and tomorrow.

- Watching for a potential system to bring rain, potentially some heavy rain, to the combined Panhandles this coming weekend. Along with cooler temperatures.

Short Term

(Tonight through Thursday night) Issued at 1153 PM CDT Tue Oct 20 2026

Upper level ridging is expected to build aloft today and tomorrow. Leading to afternoon highs well above average in the upper 70s to lower 80s. For today, surface winds are expected to drop off and become relatively light, less than 10 mph, under a weak surface low. This feature may cause some variability in the wind directions as well. Tomorrow, however, the surface pressure gradient will reorganize to give breezy and gusty southerly winds as the next upper level system sets up over the west coast.

Long Term

(Friday through next Tuesday) Issued at 1153 PM CDT Tue Oct 20 2026

Going into Friday, the combined Panhandles are progged to fall under southwest flow aloft with the next upper level trough deepening over the Intermountain West down into the southern tips of CA/NV. The southwest flow is expected to increase the cloud cover limiting daytime highs a few degrees into the mid to upper 70s for Fri. PoPs are expected to start to increase from west to east overnight Fri night as plenty of Pacific moisture gets carried up in the southwest flow. PWATs are expected to begin increasing Fri night to around an inch on Sat, maybe even slightly higher. Models have the system slowing down, and mainly confining PoPs to the central to western combined Panhandles Fri night into Sat, eventually spreading likely PoPs to include the eastern Panhandles Sat night into Sun night. There is a bit of uncertainty to the timing of when the system will enter and exit the combined Panhandles. Which will impact the overall potential for rain amounts. Guidance is pointing to a potential excessive rainfall event at this time. In fact, WPC currently has the central to western parts of the combined Panhandles under a 15% chance for rainfall to exceed flash flood guidance Sat into Sat night. With the eastern Panhandles under a 5% probability within 25 mile of a given point. At this time wide spread severe storms are not anticipated at this time.

Temperatures will be on a downward trend this weekend with widespread lower 60s for an afternoon high Sun into Mon. These temperatures are looking to be kept cool due to the rain and cloud cover, more so than any actual CAA behind a front. Winds are looking to shift behind a front on Monday, however, temperatures are not looking to be much different than Sun ahead of the front.

Aviation

(12Z TAFS) Issued at 643 AM CDT Wed Oct 21 2026

VFR conditions expected today around the area. Some high clouds will be present but shoudl be a quiet day. Over the northern panhandle areas we will see some wind shifts (even though the speeds will remain relatively light) due to some small scale boundaries.