Don’t count out snow in Texas yet. Here’s what experts say.

Winter may be off to a slow start this year with the coldest days hitting Texas in the middle of January rather than late December like many trusted forecasters initially predicted could happen. While much of Texas may not see snow, areas of the Texas Panhandle tend to see about 17 inches a year. Totals so far are pretty low, but a National Weather meteorologist says not to count out winter yet as that door won’t be closed until nearly April.

Amarillo in far North Texas is well under its annual average for snowfall at just 1.1 inches of snow having blanketed the city in the past month. On average, the city sees four inches in January and 17 inches over the year, putting it well behind schedule toward hitting that annual average. However, NWS Meteorologist Douglas Weber told MySA it’s fairly common for the city to accumulate those totals over just a couple storms, and winter is far from over.

“The way Amarillo works – I believe our normal snowfall is right around 17 inches per year – it is not uncommon for the way we acquire that 17 inches is one or two storms come in, they end up giving us big bursts of snow. Then, we either exceed or fall short of that normal just depending on how it goes,” Weber told MySA. “It’s pretty rare that, unlike other places that may get multiple accumulations to get their yearly totals, that we get like five, eight, nine small spurts like this that really accumulate to our seasonal average. It’s usually done by one big event or we just fall really short.”

Thought it may feel like much of winter is behind us, Weber said the Texas Panhandle can see snow well into April when the rest of the state has spring on the mind. In fact, back in 2017, a late-season snow fall April 29 swept over the Northern-most tip of the Lone Star State, dumping a whopping 9-12 inches of snow in the Northwest corner of the panhandle and somewhere between 1 and 3 inches in Amarillo. Plus, with El Nino weather patterns brining wetter than usual and delayed winter weather, Weber says winter certainly isn’t over up in the Texas Panhandle.

“From what I’ve heard from some of the people that do a little bit more on the climate side, it still looks like it’s more favored – I guess we’re still in El Nino – we tend to get our colder and wetter portion of the winter a little bit later like we are now. January was one of our coolest January’s since 2007,” Weber said. “We don’t really close the door on winter until at least April. It’s rare, but it’s not unheard of.”

These predictions are right in line with what other National Weather Service experts and the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicted for Texas this winter: While winter may be milder in much of South Central Texas, there remains a large chance of increased snow in the northern regions later in the winter season. Plus, both forecasters said chances were good that more extreme winter weather could come later in the season heading into spring.

“I certainly wouldn’t make any kind of argument that we still couldn’t get some winter weather especially when we’re in El Nino. We’re favored to be wetter in El Nino, and we’re still in the winter months,” Weber said. “So, anything can happen.”