NWS Amarillo issues weather statement for Texhoma, flooding concerns grow

Residents on both sides of Texhoma had a clear warning to watch roads and skies tonight: National Weather Service Amarillo issued a special weather statement for Texhoma, Oklahoma, and Texhoma, Texas, in effect until 11:30 p.m. CDT, with localized flooding the main concern. Anyone traveling through town or working outside should be ready for fast-changing weather, and events that keep people outdoors should have a way to move under cover quickly if storms build.

The weather office said showers and thunderstorms were expected across the western combined Panhandles, while severe weather chances remained low. Even so, an isolated strong wind gust could not be ruled out. The bigger concern shifted toward Tuesday, when the forecast called for widespread and prolonged rainfall, the best rain chances for the Panhandles, and a southern Texas Panhandle area included in an Excessive Rainfall Outlook.

That made the Texhoma alert more than a routine forecast update. NWS Amarillo’s special weather statement is one of its active hazard products, and the office’s severe-weather page lists it alongside tornado warnings, flash flood warnings and severe weather statements for the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. The ongoing stream of alerts showed that forecasters were tracking conditions closely across the border town and the surrounding Texas County area.

The caution was sharpened by recent history. NWS Amarillo’s major-events archive documents the June 18-19, 2024 Texhoma-to-Guymon flooding, when rainfall rates reached 3 to 4 inches per hour at times and totals climbed to 5 to 9 inches in parts of the north-central Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma Panhandle. That storm closed or washed out roads, forced high-water rescues and left some homes with feet of water outside or inside. With thunderstorm chances expected daily through the work week and late-May temperatures running near average, the immediate threat for Texhoma was not heat or hail, but water on roads and the kind of slow-moving rain that can overwhelm drainage fast.