National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

Heavy rains impact the southern Texas Panhandle

Preliminary information on the heavy rain and flooding event during the evening hours of Wednesday, July 7, through the early morning hours of Thursday, July 8, including new rainfall totals.

During the evening hours of Wednesday, July 7, 2010, showers and thunderstorms became widespread along the Highway 60 corridor from near Hereford, to Amarillo, to Panhandle, to Skellytown. The showers and thunderstorms developed in the vicinity of a stalled cold front in a moist and unstable environment.

The heavy rain initially impacted areas just to the east of Amarillo after 7:30 PM. Additional showers and thunderstorms continued to develop near the stalled frontal boundary, eventually impacting the city of Amarillo around 10:30 PM.  A distinct northeast to southwest rainfall gradient became apparent. The hardest hit areas were just to the east and northeast of Amarillo where 11.04 inches fell at Highland Park High School, according to a local media school net. This resulted in significant flooding along Highway 60, including extensive damage to Highland Park High School where 2 to 4 feet of water inundated parts of the school. The heavy rains also caused major street flooding in the southern part of Amarillo where there were water rescues and road closures.  This rainfall also caused significant flooding at the airport where a foot of water was reported in the terminal.

RECORDS SET

As of 10:00 AM on July 9, 2010, 7.93 inches of rain has fallen since July 1, which breaks the all-time monthly rainfall record for July. The previous record was 7.59 inches that occurred in July of 1960.

As of 9:00 PM on July 8, 2010, Rick Husband Airport reported 7.25 inches of rain over the previous 24 hours. This is a new all-time 24-hour rainfall record for the official observing station in Amarillo, Texas.  This breaks the previous record of 6.75 inches from May 15th-16th, 1951.

For the calendar day of July 7, 5.74 inches of rain fell, which set an all-time daily maximum rainfall record. This broke the previous daily maximum record of 4.92 inches set on June 10, 1984.

In addition, the 5.74 inches on July 7 also set a new July maximum daily rainfall record. The previous July record was 4.08 inches set on July 8, 1943.

Below are a few of the higher rainfall totals from 6:00 AM on July 7 through 9:00 PM on July 8th.

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