First December Tornado Near Amarillo

According to the National Weather Service office in Amarillo, TX this evening was one for the history books. A strong line of thunderstorms rolled though the Texas Panhandle with reports of wind gusts close to 80mph at times along with blinding rainfall. Additionally there were a couple of reports of tornadoes sighted on the ground.

The first report was around 4:15PM CST with a large tornado on the ground just outside of Amarillo with the official listing 3 miles to the northeast of Washburn, TX. The following photo was taken and posted by the National Weather Service on Twitter.

 

According to the report, this tornado lasted only 5 minutes.

Farther in time, another sighting was reported around 4:55PM CST about 5 miles south-southeast of Clarendon, TX. This particular twister caused damage and destroyed a barn in its path, plus pipes were lifted off the ground and swirled in the air.

At the moment, it seems as if there were two different tornadoes from this event, and the National Weather Service will survey the damage and come out with the official count and rating as soon as possible.

What boggled the mind about this event come from the fact that this is the first ever report of a tornado in December for the Amarillo forecast area. It proves that severe weather can occur at any time of the year as long as the correct ingredients are in play.

For more news and weather you can log onto: www.facebook.com/plushnickweather or www.facebook.com/KAGSTV. You can also check out our twitter feeds: @KAGSweather and @KAGSnews. Furthermore, you can download our new weather app. Search: KAGS Weather, in the Apple App Store or Google Play for Android.