Prolonged drought conditions coupled with strong winds, low relative humidity, and receptive fuels contributed to critical fire weather conditions across the Texas Panhandle. A wildfire developed in Gray County and continued through Aril 1st.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS AMA wrote it up.
Prolonged drought conditions coupled with strong winds, low relative humidity, and receptive fuels contributed to critical fire weather conditions across the Texas Panhandle. A wildfire developed in Gray County and continued through Aril 1st.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 31, 1:51 PM CST, 9 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Amarillo TX 251 PM CDT Thu Mar 31 2022 .SHORT TERM...Today through Friday night... Another shot at precipitation is ahead for the Panhandles in the short term. Additionally, the first rumbles of thunder in some time for some locations may be heard as well. The chance for a severe storm remains quite low. Tonight, expect a light southerly breeze as a lee surface trough develops in E CO ahead of an advancing upper trough, currently located over UT. This will help hold temperatures up in the mid 30s to around 40, a touch higher than last night. Friday, winds increase as the aforementioned surface trough shifts into NE NM and surface pressure gradient tightens. Given location of this trough, expect downslope southwesterly winds across a good portion of the CWA, so we should warm into the 70s. As the wave approaches, showers and perhaps a thunderstorm will develop, with this focusing on the eastern Panhandles where southerly moist advection may arrive just in time in the afternoon and following the frontal passage, as in classic Panhandles fashion we wait until after the front to get enough moisture for showers and a stray thunderstorm. This setup brings a couple potential hazards to discuss. First concern is actually the potential for what would technically be a dry thunderstorm in the southwestern TX Panhandle. Progged soundings do show mid-level saturation with a bit of high-based instability atop a deep mixed layer. Thus, cannot totally rule out some thunder ongoing with virga, a dry thunderstorm. All this being said, thinking about this in an impact-based frame of mind, favored area for this includes many locations that had fresh snow on the ground Thursday morning. Consequently, am not overly concerned with ignition from potential dry thunderstorms, but it could occur should lightning stray away from the potentially damp locations. Second concern is the potential for a severe thunderstorm in the eastern Panhandles. Low level southerly moist advection ahead of the surface trough will allow MLCAPE values to rise to around 300-500 J/kg as the upper wave approaches. While 500 J/kg of MLCAPE looks to be available, forecast soundings reveal very skinny instability profiles, suggesting strong updrafts may struggle to develop. This said, deep shear is seasonably notable with surface to 6km bulk shear of around 50 knots, so if we can get an updraft to overachieve, it may be able to persist. As for hazards, while turning in the low levels is seen, LCLs around 8000 feet or above and the weak lapse rates suggest tornado risk is quite low. Hail risk is tempered by the aforementioned issues with instability but cool temperatures aloft and shear profiles suggest it cannot be totally discounted. As for wind risk, moist advection responsible for appreciable instability will tend to reduce the surface dewpoint depressions, thus reducing enthusiasm for damaging wind gusts. In fact, best place for a damaging wind gust may be with the virga and/or dry thunderstorms in the SW TX Panhandle. Summarizing the above, the probability for a severe storm is quite low but will need to keep an eye on all three possibilities - wind, hail, and tornado in descending order of relative probability. Ferguson && .LONG TERM...Saturday through Wednesday night... In the long term Saturday through Wednesday night, multiple rounds of shortwave troughs will create a roller-coaster of temperatures. Daytime temperatures will be as high as the 80s one day and low as the upper 50s to lower 60s the next day. The next chance for precipitation will be Sunday night into Monday with the first cold front passage in the extended. No high wind events look to be in store for the FA days 3 thru 7. However, some breezy winds up to 25 mph will be present through out the week. This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, will be warmer as the upper flow aloft will be mostly zonal in nature. Sunday will be the warmest of which where H85 temperatures over the western combined Panhandles into New Mexico will be around 20 degrees C. This will allow surface temperatures to warm into the upper 70s and even lower 80s for the FA. This will all change Sunday night when the next shortwave trough propagates east into the area from the Desert Southwest. This system will bring in a cold front Sunday night along with some precipitation chances well into Monday with the eastern half of the Panhandles favored. Moisture appears to be limited with the better theta-e advection further to the south and east. Therefore, have stayed with the NBM PoPs that seem reasonable with slight chance in the majority of the west and chance to the southeast. This frontal passage and the increased cloud cover from the system will have highs staying in the upper 50s to lower 60s Monday afternoon. For Tuesday, clear skies and breezy downsloping winds from the west will allow temperatures to recover into the upper 70s and even lower 80s for Palo Duro Canyon. Then, another front will move in late Tuesday into Tuesday night. Winds will shift to the north an stay northerly through Wed night. This front will again bring daytime temperatures back into the upper 50s to 60s for Wed afternoon despite mostly clear skies. Hoffeditz && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Amarillo TX 40 73 34 74 46 / 10 30 10 0 0 Beaver OK 37 71 30 71 45 / 0 50 10 0 0 Boise City OK 38 64 30 71 41 / 0 20 0 0 0 Borger TX 43 74 34 76 49 / 10 40 10 0 0 Boys Ranch TX 40 73 33 76 45 / 10 30 5 0 0 Canyon TX 39 73 33 75 45 / 10 30 5 0 0 Clarendon TX 40 72 38 71 45 / 5 50 20 0 0 Dalhart TX 34 66 28 73 39 / 10 20 5 0 0 Guymon OK 38 70 30 75 45 / 5 20 0 0 0 Hereford TX 39 73 32 76 44 / 10 30 0 0 0 Lipscomb TX 37 71 32 70 45 / 0 70 20 0 0 Pampa TX 40 71 33 71 47 / 10 60 20 0 0 Shamrock TX 37 71 37 71 43 / 0 50 40 0 0 Wellington TX 37 73 39 72 43 / 0 50 30 0 0 && .AMA Watches/Warnings/Advisories... TX...None. OK...None. && 77/36
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Amarillo TX 255 PM CDT Thu Mar 31 2022 OKZ001>003-TXZ001>020-317-010800- Cimarron-Texas-Beaver-Dallam-Sherman-Hansford-Ochiltree-Lipscomb- Hartley-Moore-Hutchinson-Roberts-Hemphill-Oldham-Potter-Carson- Gray-Wheeler-Deaf Smith-Randall-Armstrong-Donley-Collingsworth- Palo Duro Canyon- 255 PM CDT Thu Mar 31 2022 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Friday through Wednesday. Elevated fire weather conditions may develop Friday across the Oklahoma Panhandle and much of the Texas Panhandle due to breezy winds of 15 to 25 mph with some higher gusts along with minimum relative humidity values around 25 percent. There is a slight chance of thunderstorms across mainly central and eastern sections of the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles Friday afternoon and evening, and then across eastern sections Sunday night. Storms are not expected to be severe. Although a severe storm in the southeast Texas Panhandle cannot be ruled out on Friday. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not anticipated at this time. Area fire managers and emergency officials should be alert for elevated fire weather conditions on Friday.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
914 AM CDT THU MAR 31 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0800 AM SNOW HEREFORD 34.82N 102.41W
03/31/2022 E1.0 INCH DEAF SMITH TX EMERGENCY MNGR
SOME ICY ROADS THIS MORNING DUE TO SNOW AND
RAIN THAT FELL.
&&The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
The Double Barrel Fire was caused by electrical transmission/distribution systems. The fire was located around3 miles south of Pampa and burned approximately 984 acres before it was contained on April 1st. There were 6 structures lost due to this wildfire.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, March 2022
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1015536.