Critically Dangerous Fire Weather Today - Damaging Winds/Blowing Dust Sunday!
High-Based Dry T-Storm.
Looking North From The Carlsbad Truck Bypass.
New Mexico's fire weather season is upon us, and we already have a couple of fires active across the state. The Tusas fire near Sapello, NM, in San Miguel County, is the largest. See the Watch Duty Map link below (via my blog post link) to view all current fire activity in the state.
The Otero County Electric Cooperative has cut power to some residents in the Alto area north of Ruidoso as a precaution due to the Red Flag Warning and high winds. See their link and Facebook article below via my blog post link.
We may have to deal with fire weather conditions until the start of our annual summer monsoon, which normally begins around the middle of June. However, we have entered neutral El Niño conditions with some forecasts indicating that El Niño may return by June. We can only hope for an early and wet start this year.
There is some hope that an upper-level low will drop into the Baja Region by the middle of next week and help increase our chances for precipitation across the state.
Critically Dangerous Fire Weather Conditions are on tap for southern, central, eastern, and southeastern New Mexico today! A repeat of these conditions is forecast for Friday through Tuesday.
Red Flag Warnings are flying for much of the state today with Fire Weather Watch in effect for the east slopes of the Sacramento Mountains, Chaves, Eddy, and Culberson Counties on Friday.
A High Wind Warning remains in effect until 9 PM MDT this evening for the Guadalupe Mountains of Eddy and Culberson Counties. West winds are forecast to be sustained at 30 to 40 mph with gusts near 65 mph.
A Wind Advisory remains in effect through 9 PM MDT this evening for Guadalupe County, the Sandia and Manzano Mountains, including Edgewood, the Central Highlands, and Northeast Highlands. West winds are forecast to become sustained at 25-40 mph with gusts near 55 mph.
Southwest to west winds are forecast to gust up to around 35-40 mph across southern and southeastern New Mexico today. In fact, the Pinery Raws in Pine Springs in the Guadalupe Mountain National Park has already gusted to 65 mph this morning, the San Augustin Pass Raws east of Las Cruces 54 mph, the Smokey Bear Raws in NW Ruidoso 50 mph, the Nogal NMCC 48 mph, the West Texas Mesonet Station west of the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center 45 mph, the Queen Raws west of Carlsbad in the Guadalupe Mountains 39 mph.
Localized areas of blowing dust may develop this afternoon and evening in some of our more dust-prone locations. Blowing dust will likely be more widespread on Sunday.
Sunday looks to be our windiest day with damaging southwest to west winds raking much of the state and aggravating the fire danger situation. Wind gusts across the mountains, and central and eastern highlands and plains of New Mexico may gust above 60 mph on Sunday. Friday and Saturday look to be breezy to locally windy across the state.
A few scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible from the northern mountains westward and over west central areas Saturday and Sunday. A few lightning strikes may accompany the thunderstorms along with erratic wind gusts and localized areas of blowing dust.
Our temperatures will continue to be above normal across the eastern half of the state today and slightly below normal over the northern and western half of the state.
Blast furnace weather looks on tap for the southeastern plains on Sunday as high temps approach 90 and southwest winds gust over 50 mph. Areas of blowing dust will add to the misery of the day.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Midland/Odessa TX 345 AM CDT Thu Apr 23 2026 ...New SHORT TERM, LONG TERM, AVIATION, FIRE WEATHER... .KEY MESSAGES... Updated at 345 AM CDT Thu Apr 23 2026 - A Red Flag Warning is in effect from 10 AM CDT /9 AM MDT/ this morning to midnight CDT /11 PM MDT/ tonight for Southeast New Mexico, most of West Texas south to the Davis Mountains, and Gaines County. A Fire Weather Watch is in effect from Friday afternoon through Friday evening from the Sacramento Foothills to the Davis Mountains, as well as the adjacent plains. - A High Wind Warning is in effect from 1 PM MDT /2 PM CDT/ this afternoon to 9 PM MDT /10 PM CDT/ this evening for the Guadalupe and Delaware Mountains, including Carlsbad Caverns National Park. - Unseasonably warm and dry conditions are expected through at least next week. &&
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 859 AM MDT Thu Apr 23 2026 ...New UPDATE... .KEY MESSAGES... Updated at 856 AM MDT Thu Apr 23 2026 - Critical fire weather conditions with a risk of rapid fire spread will plague southern, central, and eastern areas today, then again Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Extremely critical fire weather conditions are possible on Sunday across eastern NM. - Strong southwest and west winds will also produce difficult crosswinds for high profile vehicles on north-south roads today, Saturday, especially Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. - There is a moderate chance (50%) of damaging wind gusts in the mountains and across parts of central and eastern New Mexico on Sunday and Sunday night. - On Sunday, showers and thunderstorms from the northern mountains westward, and over west central areas, will be capable of producing erratic wind gusts with hazardous crosswinds and blowing dust, as well as cloud-to-ground lightning. && .UPDATE... Issued at 856 AM MDT Thu Apr 23 2026 The Wind Advisory has been expanded to the east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains as the Angel Fire Airport has gusted to 45kts this morning and is likely to continue to do so throughout the rest of the morning and mid afternoon. &&
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service El Paso TX/Santa Teresa NM 540 AM MDT Thu Apr 23 2026 ...New AVIATION, FIRE WEATHER... .KEY MESSAGES... Updated at 826 PM MDT Wed Apr 22 2026 - Breezy to windy, and dry, each day this week along with warm temperatures. Gusts up to 35 mph Thursday afternoon. Critical fire conditions will be the main weather concern over the next several days. - Strongest winds thus far this month expected Sunday. Likely to be impactful, with areas of blowing dust, and widespread critical fire danger conditions. &&
Valid Today Through 6 PM MDT Sunday, April 26, 2026.
Sapello, New Mexico In San Miguel County.
Wildfire Notification: Tusas Fire (San Miguel County)
Update: The Tusas Fire was discovered at approximately 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, near NM 266, mile marker 2.5, west of Sapello in San Miguel County. The fire is burning in timber fuels, torching and making wind-driven runs from the southwest. Structures are threatened, and smoke is visible from N.M. 266 and the surrounding areas. State, local and federal fire crews are responding and utilizing full suppression tactics, including ordering of air resources. Currently, the fire is estimated at 50-75 acres and is zero percent contained. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Evacuations / Closures: Per incident command, residents on NM 266 between mile markers 3-6 are being evacuated, and residents east of mile marker 3 are in Set status. NM 266 is closed at the State Highway 94 junction. Local residents should take caution and avoid the area.
OCEC is aware of an outage affecting much of the Alto area. Protective devices are on non-reclose due to high winds and red flag warnings. This means that breakers operate and the line stays open at the first sign of a fault to ensure that power lines are less likely to be the cause of a fire. When these breakers operate, causing an outage, line crews will do extra patrols of the affected section of line to make sure there are no trees or limbs touching the electrical equipment before giving an all-clear to re-energize the power line.
Having these protective devices open at the first sign of a fault may cause more frequent and longer outages for some, but hope our members will understand. The benefits of the extra patrol time far outweigh the risks of not performing the expanded inspection.
Please be patient as crews patrol. Service will be restored as soon as they have checked for fire hazards, such as downed trees or power lines.
There Are None So Blind As Those Who "Will - Not" To See...107.
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