Why Does The Rain ALWAYS Miss Amarillo?

As I sat there staring at the weather forecast and radar yesterday like I was a meteorologist, I realized something about Amarillo weather. It's impossible to predict.

Why was I staring at it like a hawk? Well, my oldest had baseball practice yesterday, and I'm the coach. I had to determine whether or not practice was going to happen or not. I didn't want to cancel because they could use the work, but I also didn't want to make parents drive them there, then come pick them up 20 minutes later after the skies opened up.

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I sat there staring at the future radar starting at like 1 pm. It didn't look bad at all, maybe a sprinkle here and there. Great, practice is a go. I start checking it again around 3 pm. Looks like the rain has grown quite a bit, but still only a prediction for 40% chance of rain. Still a go for practice.

4 pm hits, I check it one last time before we have to start thinking about going. Uh-oh. The rain area has grown even more and I'm starting grow very concerned. Future radar says rain coming around 5:20 pm and it doesn't look like it's going to leave until around 7:30 pm. Yeah, that's basically the entire practice.

Back and forth I go with our other coaches on their thoughts. We decide the radar looks like it'll be a waste of time to go out and practice. So we decided, begrudgingly, to cancel.

As I sit there looking out the window after canceling, I start to grow irritated. Where is all this rain we were supposed to get? Wasn't it supposed to be covering us by now? I look at the radar again. It has split, as usual, right over Amarillo. Raining to the east and west of us, but here in the city? We got a light spitting for about 10 minutes.

What is it about rain and Amarillo? Is it the so-called 'Pantex Effect' that I've heard mentioned several times? Does rain just hate Amarillo? I knew better than to cancel practice, this happens all the time. If there's a chance of rain, it probably isn't landing here...even if they say its going to.

Is there some kind of meteorological reason that it tends to split apart as it approaches the city? I mean there had to be something, right? Barometric pressure, wind blowing three different ways where it breaks up the storm clouds. Something has to explain this phenomenon.

Now, I know if I had kept practice on as scheduled, the skies would've opened up and poured on us like we were in the middle of a monsoon, so for that, I apologize Amarillo. I should've kept practice on so we would've gotten some rain.