[14] During April 1887, J. I. Berry established a site for a town after he chose a well-watered section along the right-of-way of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad, which had begun building across the Texas Panhandle.

Berry and Colorado City, Texas, merchants wanted to make their new town site the region's main trading center.

Sanborn also offered to trade lots in the new location to businesses in the original city's site and help with the expense of moving to new buildings.

[11] In 1949, a deadly F4 tornado devastated much of Amarillo, shortly after nightfall on May 15, tearing through the south and east sides of the city, killing seven people, and injuring more than 80 others.

The tornado, shortly after 8 pm, ripped through Amarillo's most densely populated areas, demolishing almost half of the city, causing catastrophic damage and loss of life.

Amarillo is infamous for its unpredictable weather patterns, with broad daily temperature changes, raging winds, devastating hailstorms and "northers", long periods of drought, late frosts, spring tornadoes, dust storms, and floods.

Though urbanization, agricultural farming, and construction have taken place over the last century in and around Amarillo, the native grasslands that dominate this region have remained largely untouched.

[25] The city is situated near the Panhandle Field, in a productive gas and oil area, covering 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) in Hartley, Potter, Moore, Hutchinson, Carson, Gray, Wheeler, and Collingsworth Counties.

[29] Amarillo is characterized by a winter season featuring large diurnal temperature variation, great day-to-day variability, possible sudden and/or severe Arctic air outbreaks (in Texas, called "blue northers"), possible blizzards and hot summers with generally low humidity.

Unlike in the Rio Grande Valley or eastern portions of Texas, days where the low does not fall below 70 °F or 21.1 °C are relatively rare, due to the aridity and elevation.

[52] The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), funded by a city sales tax, provides aggressive incentive packages to existing and prospective employers.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, the AEDC gained notoriety by sending mock checks to businesses across the country, placing full-page advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, and paying an annual $1 million subsidy to American Airlines to retain jet service.

[53][54] The AEDC is largely responsible for bringing Bell Helicopter Textron's development of the V-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft and the future site of Marine One assembly in Amarillo.

[56] Amazon, Asset Protection Unit, and Texas Tech University Vet School were named some major organizations contributing to the city and metropolitan area's economic growth.

Another natural landmark near the city, the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument is located 30 miles (48 km) north of Amarillo.

The Pioneer Amphitheater, located in nearby Palo Duro Canyon, is the setting for the outdoor musical drama Texas, which plays nightly during the summer.

Notable Amarilloans include actress Ann Doran (1911–2000), old-style journalist Bascom N. Timmons, the Dory Funk wrestling family, former UFC Champions Heath Herring and Evan Tanner, astronaut Rick Husband, professional golfer Ryan Palmer, rockabilly pioneer Buddy Knox, actress Carolyn Jones, actress and dancer Cyd Charisse, actor and poet Harry Northup, State Senator Max Sherman, Republican state chairman Tom Mechler, politicians Beau Boulter and John Marvin Jones, businessman T. Boone Pickens, Jr., singer-songwriter JD Souther, gambler Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston, soldier and interior decorator Clyde Kenneth Harris, and music artist and composer Terry Stafford ("Amarillo by Morning"; "Suspicion").

The Randall County Amarillo Annex building is located within the city limits and houses its Sheriff's Office and Justice of the Peace Court, Precinct 4.

Amarillo's major network television affiliates are KACV-TV 2 (PBS), KAMR 4 (NBC), KVII 7 (ABC, with The CW on DT2), KFDA 10 (CBS), KCIT 14 (Fox), and KCPN-LD 33 (MyNet).

The airport is served by several major air carriers with non-stop service to Dallas, Houston, Austin, Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

ACT operates bus services that include fixed route transit and demand response paratransit which are designed for people with disabilities.

The city's original street layout was set up by William H. Bush, beginning at the west end of the town moving to the east.

Loop 335 circles around Amarillo in all four directions and consists of four-lane roadway on its northeast and southwest quadrants and two-lane paving to the southeast and northwest.

By 2011, lake levels had dropped so much due to the Texas drought that the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority voted to stop using it entirely.

Another notable trial in Amarillo includes the Fort Worth-area murder case of T. Cullen Davis, which involved one of the richest men in the United States, his former wife, and her daughter and boyfriend.

[138] The 1997 murder of Brian Deneke and subsequent trial also brought national attention because it highlighted social divisions in the community that mirrored those in America as a whole.

In the final settlement, the City of Amarillo agreed to pay $5 million in damages to the former Tulia defendants; disband the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force that it set up to oversee the sting operation; and require early retirement for two Amarillo Police Department officers who were responsible for supervising the sting's sole undercover agent.

[143] Amarillo has been mentioned in popular music such as Tony Christie's 1971 cover of "Is This the Way to Amarillo", written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks in 2005, breaking the record for the longest time taken for a song to top the UK Singles Chart after its original release set by Jackie Wilson's "Reet Petite" in December 1986.

[146] Amarillo was the setting for several motion pictures, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Switchback, and The Plutonium Circus, the 1995 South by Southwest Film Festival winner for best documentary feature.

Amarillo also features heavily in the Better Call Saul episode of the same name, the third of the show's second season, in which protagonist Jimmy McGill visits the city to solicit clients.