Flash Flood — Lincoln, New Mexico

2025-07-07 · near Ruidoso, Lincoln, New Mexico

Event narrative

Heavy rain on the South Fork burn scar from slow moving thunderstorms during the early afternoon hours resulted in another round of flash flooding across roads and neighborhoods on and downstream of the burn scar. This resulted in Main Road at bridge 2 to become impassable, and the closure of Ebarb Drive and Porr Drive due to 3-6 inches of flowing water over the road. Additionally, the runoff and debris flow continued downstream on the Rio Ruidoso with the river overtopping the bridge at Gavilan Canyon Road just north of Sudderth Drive in Hollywood.

Wider weather episode

The monsoon high over northern Mexico built north into the desert southwest on July 6th and 7th. Daytime heating and moisture resulted in the development of scattered showers and storms across the northern and central mountains during the afternoon hours spreading east to lower elevations during the evening hours before tapering off shortly after sunset. Heavy rainfall from storms over the burn scars surrounding Ruidoso resulted in flash flooding on and downstream of the burn scars on July 6th followed by two separate rounds on July 7th with first round occurring during the early afternoon hours and the second round occurring during the mid evening hours just before sunset.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.3397, -105.7250)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1262297. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.