Heavy Rain Yesterday Produced Flash Flooding.

- Thursday, July 05, 2012

Blog updated at 10:25 AM MDT.

Map Is Courtesy Of The Midland NWS Office.

Maps Are Courtesy Of The Lubbock NWS Office.

Maps Are Courtesy Of The Albuquerque NWS Office.

Map Is Courtesy Of The El Paso NWS Office.

NWS HPC 5-Day Rainfall Forecast.

Water Vapor Satellite Image At 8:45 AM MDT.

Flash Flood Watch Continues Into Tonight.
(Lincoln County Burn Scars)

NWS Albuquerque Rainfall Totals.
(Public Information Statement)

Thunderstorms begin firing up over the mountains just before noontime yesterday. Afternoon thunderstorms then begin popping up across the southeastern plains. A thunderstorm produced sustained winds of 63 mph with gusts to 79 mph at the Clovis Municipal Airport at 10:15 PM last night.

A few spots managed to receive some decent rainfall out of the storms. A flash flood warning was issued for southwestern Eddy County at 7:38 PM after thunderstorms dumped 2.84" of rain on the Queen Raws and a spotter reported flash flooding in Dark Canyon Arroyo east of Eddy County Rd #408.

Roswell had the highest temperature with 99 recorded at the airport. I reached 98 here at my home in Carlsbad. The Carlsbad airport and the Paduca Raws recorded 97 while the Artesia airport reached 95 and the Hobbs airport recorded a high of 93. Thunderstorm activity and cloudy skies kept the Sacramento's much cooler than the plains. The Cloudcroft Climate Coop Station recorded a high of 69, while the Sunspot Observatory on Sacramento Peak recorded a high of 66.

Today should turn out to be pretty much of a carbon copy of yesterday's weather here in southeastern New Mexico. A weak upper-level low is located in southwest Texas, southwest of the Midland/Odessa area, will continue to move slowly northwestward and help to destabilize the atmosphere today. Our first monsoonal surge of the season continues to feed sufficient moisture into the state from the south, which will continue to aide in the development of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. Some thunderstorms may continue well into the night.

Locally heavy rainfall will once again be possible today and tonight. Rainfall rates could be as high as 1" - 2" per hour with the heavier thunderstorms. Once again the mountains are the favored areas to see the most widespread thunderstorm activity. Localized flash flooding will be possible over and below the burn scars in the Guadalupe, Sacramento, and Capitan mountains.

Southeastern New Mexico generally has a 20% - 40% chance of getting wet today and tonight. This drops off to 20% tomorrow and 10% - 20% into the weekend. Ruidoso and Cloudcroft have a 50% - 80% chance of getting wet today and tonight. They will have a 30% - 50% chance of seeing rain this weekend.

Our afternoon high temperatures will remain close to seasonal normals with the southeastern plains seeing the mid 90's and the mountains (Ruidoso and Cloudcroft areas) the upper 60's to the upper 70's. Yet another easterly wave moving westward in Texas combined with a cold front approaching from the north may increase our chances for more rain in the area by around next Tuesday.

Selected Rainfall Totals From Yesterday-

Queen Raws - 3 Miles East of Queen 2.84"

IRaws 12 - Nogal 1.49"

1.4 ESE Lincoln 1.32"

Clovis Municipal Airport .99"

Capitan Climate .90"

2.1 SE of Alamogordo .79"

33.3 WSW Carlsbad - Queen .60"

NW Hobbs - KM5BS .50"

2.3 S Cloudcroft .48"

4.0 E Cloudcroft .47"

Dry Canyon East of Cloudcroft .33"