At 7 am on Friday, June 18, 2004, the Amarillo Weather Forecast Office began issuing aviation forecasts for the Guymon Municipal Airport. These aviation forecasts, also known as Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAF), will be routinely issued for Guymon, Oklahoma 24 hour a day, and will be identified as follows:

AIRPORT WMO HEADING AWIPS ID
GUYMON MUNICIPAL AIRPORT FTUS44 KAMA TAFGUY

This new TAF will be added to all three of the following existing TAF collectives, which are transmitted to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) personnel and other external users:

WMO HEADINGS AVAILABLE TO THE FOLLOWING CUSTOMERS

FTUS80 KWBC NON-FAA DOMESTIC AND FAMILY OF SERVICES
FTUS90 KWBC FAA WEATHER MESSAGE SWITCHING CENTER AND FAA
FACILITIES
FTUS52 KWBC GLOBAL TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM CUSTOMERS

The aviation forecasts are oriented towards pilots containing useful information such as visibility, winds, weather, and cloud heights. These forecasts can be found at our web page at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ama/html/for-ava.htm

The Amarillo National Weather Service Office also issues TAFs for the Rick Husband Airport in Amarillo (KAMA) and the Dalhart Municipal Airport. If you have any questions regarding the new TAF or any of the existing TAFs, please contact:

MR. JOSE M. GARCIA
METEOROLOGIST-IN-CHARGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE
1900 ENGLISH ROAD
AMARILLO TX 79108-3118
PHONE: 806-335-1835
E-MAIL: JOSE.GARCIA@NOAA.GOV

It’s hard to believe it is already June and the summer season has begun. The 2004 year started off on a wet note. Before I give the details on precipitation so far this year, let me remind everyone that official climatological data is recorded here in Amarillo at the Rick Husband International Airport. The airport is located approximately 7 miles east of downtown Amarillo.

As of the end of June, the official precipitation total for the year is 11.75 inches. This is 1.95 inches above the normal amount of 9.80 inches. So how did each month stack up compared to normals? Well, January was slightly wetter than normal. The total precipitation was 0.70 inches. The normal amount is 0.63 inches. February was a wet month with 1.42 inches of precipitation. February’s normal is 0.55 inches. March and April were also above normal. The total precipitation for March was 1.50 inches which is 0.37 inches above the normal amount of 1.13 inches. April measured a soaking 2.65 inches of precipitation, which is 1.32 inches above the normal amount of 1.33 inches. May was an unusually dry. In fact, May 2004 goes down in the record books as the 3rd driest May recorded since observations began in 1897! The month totaled 0.10 inches which is 2.40 inches below the normal amount of 2.50 inches. The month of June is usually the wettest month for Amarillo. June’s normal precipitation is 3.28 inches and we finished up with 5.38 inches, another above normal month.

You might be wondering what we can expect for the rest of the summer season. According to the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles have equal chances of receiving normal, above normal, or below normal precipitation for the rest of July and August. To view additional climate data from the Climate Prediction Center, please access their website at www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov.