More Of The Same.

- June 17, 2011

Click On The Map To Enlarge It.

12Z/6 AM MDT WRF-NMM 500 MB Analysis This Morning.

More Heat - More Wind - No Rain.

Another wild fire broke out around 3 PM MDT yesterday afternoon in southeast Ruidoso, NM. Named the Swallow Fire, it burned 8 homes to the ground. About ten acres were lost to the fire in town. The fire erupted behind the Travel Lodge along US Hwy 70. For more info on this fire please click on this link. Swallow Fire.

High clouds blanketed blanked the area overnight which helped to keep our overnight low temps up in some locations. My thermometer was already reading 90F by 8:45 AM this morning.

Some of the warmer overnight lows reported this morning include-

Carlsbad Caverns Climate 83
Bat Draw Raws - Carlsbad Caverns 82

Carlsbad Arpt ASOS 80

2.1 NNW Downtown Carlsbad 78

McKittrick Canyon Raws 78

Pinery Raws - Pine Springs 77

Caprock Raws 72

Queen Raws 70

Guadalupe Pass ASOS 70

More heat, wind, and no chance for meaningful rainfall will continue to plaque southeastern New Mexico today into the weekend, and into at least the first of next week. A series of upper-level disturbances will move across the Central and Northern Rockies this weekend, which will help to weaken the strong upper-level ridge of high pressure that has dominated our weather for weeks now.

Hot weather will continue across the area today into the first of next week with our afternoon high temperatures forecast to range from 100 -110 across the area. The Carlsbad Airport ASOS has recorded a high temperature of 100 or higher for the past ten days in a row. Twelve days this month have seen 100-degree or higher temps, and there has been a total of sixteen days so far this year that have reached or exceed 100-degrees at the Carlsbad Airport.

Southwesterly-westerly winds will increase with time and gust up to around 25-40 mph today into Sunday. Sunday looks like a particularly windy day. The fire danger will continue to be extreme across the area. Red Flag Warnings are in effect for the area today, and we likely see more of these through the weekend.

High Temperatures Recorded Yesterday-

(Thursday, June 16, 2011)

West Texas-

Pecos Arpt AWOS 112

Wink Arpt ASOS 111

Midland Intl Arpt ASOS 109

Midland Airpark AWOS 109

Fort Stockton Arpt ASOS 109

Seminole Climate 107

Chaves County-

Roswell Arpt ASOS 107

(Tied Record Of 107 On 6-16-1977)