924 first-hand accounts of flood events in New Mexico, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.
An area of disturbed weather coupled with abundant monsoonal moisture produced repeated rounds of light to moderate rainfall pushing into southeastern NM. This included much of Chaves County and westward to Ruidoso in Lincoln County.
Read the full account →An area of disturbed weather coupled with abundant monsoonal moisture produced repeated rounds of light to moderate rainfall pushing into southeastern NM. This included much of Chaves County and westward to Ruidoso in Lincoln County.
Read the full account →Daytime heating combining with high moisture content underneath the monsoon high resulted in slow moving shower and thunderstorm activity each and every day first across the mountains ranges in the afternoon before spreading to surrounding lower elevations during the evening and…
Read the full account →Daytime heating combining with high moisture content underneath the monsoon high resulted in slow moving shower and thunderstorm activity each and every day first across the mountains ranges in the afternoon before spreading to surrounding lower elevations during the evening and…
Read the full account →A trough to the west, coupled with the effects of moist upslope flow, helped trigger scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms across far West Texas and Southeast New Mexico throughout the day on September 28th.
Read the full account →An active round of severe weather affected southeastern New Mexico during the late afternoon and evening of the 5th. Isolated supercell storms initially tracked across northern Lea County and southern Eddy County. The storms produced large hail and damaging thunderstorm winds.
Read the full account →A large cluster of thunderstorms dropped 3 to 5 inches of rain on much of the triangle between Las Cruces, Hatch and Deming, which is an unusually large area for such rainfall amounts in the desert southwest.
Read the full account →After a back door cold front ushered in higher moisture all the way to the Arizona border, showers and thunderstorms developed across much of the western and southwest mountains across to the Sacramento Mountains. Socorro county was one of the hardest hit areas.
Read the full account →Plentiful moisture came in from the Pacific Ocean across southeast New Mexico and far West Texas, and this moisture was limited further east due to a mid-level ridge that was approaching the Southern Plains.
Read the full account →Heavy rain developed along the east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains over western Colfax and Mora Counties. The Cimarron River came close to overflowing its banks in Cimarron while Highway 21 to the Philmont Scout Ranch Headquarters was closed for about 6 hours by high…
Read the full account →Strong southerly flow developed ahead of an upper low moving through Southern Arizona. Plenty of moisture was brought into the region with sufficient wind shear and instability to combine with several upper level disturbances.
Read the full account →In summary, flash flooding became widespread across southeastern New Mexico on Sunday the 26th and persisted into Monday the 27th. Doppler radar estimated three day rainfall totals exceeding eleven inches across portions of Lea County by late Monday.
Read the full account →High pressure aloft became centered over Missouri with weaker centers present over parts of eastern New Mexico. This pattern maintained a persistent south to north steering component within a deep monsoonal moisture plume over the state.
Read the full account →A slow-moving thunderstorm produced torrential rainfall over Portales. Local emergency management, law enforcement, and fire officials reported some residential flooding. Nearly 5000 sandbags were used to protect numerous homes.
Read the full account →Southeast low level flow brought in some Gulf moisture to the region. Aloft, there was an upper level trough located near the International Border. Slow moving storms developed near the Rio Grande Valley and brought heavy rain and flash flooding to the Rincon area.
Read the full account →A storm off the northern California coast on the 25th and 26th moved inland on the 27th, crossing New Mexico early on the 28th. Meanwhile, a second storm from the Pacific Northwest raced southeast across the state on the night of the 28th into the early morning hours of the…
Read the full account →A very moist atmosphere was in place with weak flow aloft keeping storm motion very slow. A weak upper level trough was passing over the region which triggered scattered thunderstorms with very heavy rain which lead to over 20 houses in Alamogordo getting flooded and mud slides…
Read the full account →The upper level high was positioned from northern Arizona southeast across west central New Mexico. A backdoor cold front that made its way into the state the previous night was the main focus for thunderstorm development.
Read the full account →The upper level high was positioned from northern Arizona southeast across west central New Mexico. A backdoor cold front that made its way into the state the previous night was the main focus for thunderstorm development.
Read the full account →The remains of a tropical storm were across the eastern Pacific near the southern tip of Baja, California. Mid-level flow across the area was from the southwest which allowed for tropical moisture to get transported into the region.
Read the full account →One of the most active monsoonal days occurred on August 3rd, with heavy rains noted across much of the state. However, the biggest impact came to the recently burned areas, particularly to the Las Conchas and White Fire burn scars.
Read the full account →Abundant monsoon moisture allowed for afternoon thunderstorms to develop over the central mountain chain, including the Sacramento Mountains near Ruidoso.
Read the full account →A persistent period of above normal moisture produced another day of scattered to numerous thunderstorms over northern and central NM. A few of these storms produced large hail and locally heavy rainfall.
Read the full account →Abundant monsoon moisture surged into NM allowing for storms producing heavy rainfall and severe winds over portions of northeastern NM. Severe winds near Clayton, NM caused some damage on August 12th.
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