Hail in De Baca County, New Mexico

A trained spotter reported nickel size hail just east of Mesa that was accumulating on the ground.

A backdoor cold front moved through the eastern plains overnight on May 23, 2022, bringing impressive cold air advection into much of the plains. This ultimately reduced the severe weather threat on May 24th with less instability. However, modest instability managed to remain in place across southeastern New Mexico. As a low deepened over northeastern New Mexico, the polar jet dug into the state as well. With strong northwesterly flow aloft combined with moist easterly flow at the surface, this helped increase wind shear. Thus, the severe weather threat was confined to the southeastern plains during the afternoon, and a few thunderstorms produced large hail and strong winds across De Baca and Chaves counties.