Drought — Chaves County Plains, New Mexico

2024-10-01 to 2024-10-31 · Chaves County Plains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Severe drought conditions were mostly removed from the southern half of the zone due to a record amount of rainfall observed on October 19th. Roswell observed 5.78 inches of rain on October 19th setting a new all-time record for daily rainfall in the city.

Wider weather episode

Overall, October was record warm month for northern and central NM with dry conditions during the first half of the month. The 2nd half of the month was much wetter, especially for eastern New Mexico with Roswell observing record rainfall for a 24-hour period on October 19th resulting in catastrophic flooding across the city. This rainfall resulted in the removal of severe drought across Roswell and southern Chaves County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1216593. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.