Inches of snow blanketed North Texas, but more snow is on the horizon

The northern most tip of Texas where the Lone Start State meets Oklahoma is seeing its first snowfall of the winter season, something trusted weather forecasters say could become more common toward the tail end of winter. As the storm continues to move over the Texas Panhandle, the National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook warning of continued snowfall throughout the weekend and heading into next week.

As of Thursday night, January 4, the National Weather Service announced several inches of snow had blanketed very northern most tip of the Texas Panhandle, including cities like Dalhart and Channing which saw 3 inches or more. Still in the panhandle but a little further south, cities like Amarillo have recorded more than an inch of snow by Thursday night. However, snow is expected to keep falling over the area as another winter weather system moves over the area Sunday night headed into Monday.

“We’re expecting some slight snow showers, snow flurries, for tomorrow, but it’s going to have very limited accumulations,” Steve Hannah, National Weather Service metrologist with the Amarillo office, told MySA. “The ongoing system is mostly done except we’ve still got some snow flurries. Mostly our attention now turning to another weather system that looks to be developing and should kind of impact come Monday. So, not too far in the future.”

Hannah confirmed this was the first snowfall of the winter season in Amarillo, noting the area really only saw bouts of rain in the earlier winter months, but he said it’s not uncommon for snow to blanket North Texas later into winter. It doesn’t look like this snow is going anywhere either, as a hazardous weather outlook for much of the northern portions of the Texas Panhandle show small snow flurries all the way up to the next major snow event Monday, January 8.

“Snowfall accumulations will be possible across much of the Panhandle Monday and Monday night,” the National Weather Service warns in its hazardous weather outlook. “Strong winds in excess of 35 mph sustained will be possible Monday afternoon.”

While the National Weather Service is tracking the storm and issuing warnings, a tweet from the national agency says the storm movement could blow north of the Texas Panhandle or head straight for the middle of it, hitting Amarillo head on. For certain, the agency says a low-pressure system will move across the panhandle Monday through Tuesday, but it remains unclear exactly how much snow will fall on the area.

The first scenario shows the precipitation moving toward the northern most tip of the Texas Panhandle which would result in less snowfall over Amarillo and other northern cities in Texas, but the storm could head straight for the Texas Panhandle bringing higher levels of precipitation and winter weather impacts. Either way, the area of Texas is likely to see snow, and it’s going to get windy no matter where the storm blows.