EFU Tornado — San Miguel, New Mexico

2024-07-05 · near (lvs)las Vegas Airport, San Miguel, New Mexico

Event narrative

A very brief and ragged tornado touched down in the rural countryside of San Miguel County north of Las Vegas and Interstate 25. No damage was observed.

Wider weather episode

A backdoor cold front entered northeast NM during the late afternoon hours of July 4th. Higher moisture behind this front resulted in the development of a severe storm near the Colorado border that dropped ping pong ball size in Raton during the evening. The backdoor front surged through eastern NM overnight July 4th into the morning hours of July 5th producing more showers and storms in its wake. The backdoor front was draped across the central mountain chain on July 5th with more storms developing along the east slopes of the central mountain chain come midday. Storms produced quarter to golf ball size hail in Mora, San Miguel, Guadalupe, and Lincoln Counties along with a brief tornado a few miles east southeast of Sapello in San Miguel County, and a high wind gust of 65 mph at Dunken in southwest Chaves County. Storms moved into the eastern plains during the evening followed with another round of storms across northeast NM during the overnight hours of July 5th. This round of storms slowly dissipated near the Texas border come daybreak on July 6th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.7300, -105.1600)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1179709. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.