422 FXUS64 KAMA 180537 AFDAMAArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Amarillo TX 1237 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
...New KEY MESSAGES, SHORT TERM, LONG TERM, AVIATION...
.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... (06Z TAFS) Issued at 1236 AM CDT Thu Sep 18 2025
MVFR/IFR conditions to start as storms are approaching the TAF sites. After 12z the chances of storms should diminish, and we`ll still have low cigs due to to cloud cover, but we should start to improve the cigs around the 12-18z time period as we start to go more scattered in cloud cover. With the front through for the most part, we`re looking at variable winds around 5 to 10kts.
Weber
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.AMA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... TX...None. OK...None. &&
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SHORT TERM...89 LONG TERM....89 AVIATION...89
NWS AMA Office Area Forecast Discussion