The National Weather Service in Amarillo Has Released Tornado Ratings From Saturday
Over the weekend, the Amarillo area just couldn't catch a break from all the wild weather. But really, that's nothing new around here. And so far, it seems like 2021 will be one of the more interesting years for weather here in the Panhandle (and it's only March!). Up here at the station, it was a constant flurry of alarms sounding off as the EAS system did its job to get the word out, exactly like it's supposed to.
So just how bad was the storm from last week? Aside from heavy rain and hail, the National Weather Service has counted damage from eight tornadoes that touched down in the Amarillo area on Saturday.
The maps alone are definitely worth the look:
Here's the big boy of the tornado outbreak: the Happy/Palo Duro Canyon tornado. It was definitely the most prominent one to come out of event, cutting a 17-mile path that left a wake of downed power lines in its wake. This tornado didn't go out quietly either, the supercell that spawned this impressive storm produced a second funnel that touched down and was tracked from Palo Duro Canyon all the way to Washburn.
Whew child.
The Palo Duro Canyon-to-Washburn event was the one that caused damages within the park. A roof was pulled up from one of the cabins and the check in station was damaged as well. The raw video obtained of the event shows just how intense the storm was.
There's really no such thing as 'last but not least' when it comes to covering storms and tornado outbreaks, but it is worth noting the damage in the Clarendon area as it shows that this storm was just as strong as the event at Palo Duro, leaving many homes damaged along its 13 mile path.
For reference, the strongest storms in the area on Saturday, March 13 were classified as EF-2 Tornadoes. This category of twisters pack a wind speed of up to 135 miles per hour. Pretty in tense.
If you'd like to take a deeper dive into the data, check out the official stats from the National Weather Service Amarillo Forecast Office