Weather in Amarillo in May

A good month. May works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 28.3 °C, lows 12 °C, and rain falls on 9 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 5 of 12 in Amarillo: past the worst of the year but short of April, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 9 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 28.3 °C days and 12 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 13 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day swings 16.2 °C from low to high, which means one bag has to cover both. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 39.5 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 38 mm — roughly 66% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. May rainfall has ranged from 6 mm to 224 mm across the twenty years measured — a 218 mm spread around an average of 58 mm. The average is real but almost no individual May looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 13.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 46%.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 4.8 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 4.9 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

May is at or near the longest days of Amarillo's year: 14 hours of daylight, gaining 0.8 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 37.1 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1118 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly. Within May itself the daily swing is 16.2 °C, so mornings and afternoons need different clothes.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself. May is the value pick for Amarillo: it scores within 14 points of April without carrying April's prices.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

May in Amarillo versus nearby

If Amarillo is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Lubbock is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Oklahoma City is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days more rain.

So: May works, with April the better month by 14 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Amarillo

See all twelve months in Amarillo, or where else to go in May.