Flash Flood — Chaves, New Mexico

2024-09-02 · near Lake Arthur, Chaves, New Mexico

Event narrative

A video shared on social media showed a portion of Highway 2 south of Lake Arthur in southern Chaves County under six inches of water. Radar and gauge readings showed the likely period of flooding rains occurred in the morning from 8am to 9am MDT, while the reports were received later in the early afternoon when the heavier rain ended.

Wider weather episode

An area of disturbed weather coupled with abundant monsoonal moisture produced repeated rounds of light to moderate rainfall pushing into southeastern NM. This included much of Chaves County and westward to Ruidoso in Lincoln County. Rainfall amounts eventually reaching 0.25 to 0.60 inches over the course of 1 to 2 hours resulted in flash flooding off the South Fork and McBride burn scars in Ruidoso. Flash flooding was also reported south of Lake Arthur in southern Chaves County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.9800, -104.3700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1199549. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.