High Wind — Upper Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico

2022-04-22 · Upper Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico

Event narrative

An AWOS station near Taos measured a peak sustained wind speed of 53 mph. Several hours of high wind speeds reduced visibility at Taos to one half to three quarters statute miles from blowing dust.

Wider weather episode

As a very strong low pressure system tracked into California on April 22, 2022, it steered an incredibly potent upper-level jet across New Mexico. Winds at 250mb within this jet reached 90 to 100 knots while at 700mb, these westerly winds strengthened to 50 to 60 knots. Meanwhile, deep atmospheric mixing along with a deepening surface low over northern Colorado only helped to enhance surface wind speeds. This set the stage for a widespread damaging wind event across all of northern and central New Mexico. 60 to 70 mph winds were common for several hours across all of northern and central New Mexico with higher gusts of 80 to 95 mph measured across the northern high terrain and northeast highlands. These strong winds created extensive areas of blowing dust, especially across western and central New Mexico. Numerous sites, such as Farmington, Gallup, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, reported reduced visibility to less than one quarter mile at times. This caused poor travel conditions, and major highways like Interstate 25 near Santa Fe were forced to close due to several traffic accidents. With exceptionally dry conditions persisting, this set the stage for a catastrophic fire weather day with with at least twenty new fire starts. The ongoing Cooks Peak, Hermits Peak, and Calf Canyon wildfires experienced exceptional growth underneath these high winds and exploded in size within hours. The Calf Canyon Fire threatened numerous communities across Mora and San Miguel counties, prompting numerous evacuations for many residents.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1009959. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.