Debris Flow — Lincoln, New Mexico

2025-07-08 · near Alto, Lincoln, New Mexico

Event narrative

Extremely heavy rainfall from slow moving thunderstorms resulted in catastrophic flash flooding and destructive debris flows on and downstream of the South Fork burn scar. Debris flows and a record rise on the Rio Ruidoso from 1.43 feet to 20.24 feet in approximately 30 minutes overtopped bridges and roads, pushed some houses off their foundations and down canyons and hillsides, forced power outages, and resulted in water and sewer services. These extremely high flows destroyed the horse racetrack at Ruidoso Downs. Swift water teams rescued 65 individuals from homes, RV trailers, vehicles and from flood waters and debris flows. Up to 150 families and 400 homes were believed to be impacted and damaged. Tragically, three deaths were reported, including two young children when flood waters and debris flows overwhelmed and destroyed their RV. The parents of these children ended up being hospitalized due to suffering serious injuries while trying to save their children from the floodwaters. Two family dogs were also lost in the floodwaters. A federal disaster declaration was issued by the president two days after the catastrophic flash flooding to help free up federal funds and assistance for recovery efforts.

Wider weather episode

The monsoon high was centered over the Arizona and New Mexico border July 8th. Daytime heating combined with rich Gulf moisture along the east slopes of the Sacramento Mountains resulted in the development of thunderstorms over the west end of the South Fork burn scar during the early afternoon. These storms trained slowly across the South Fork burn scar into midtown Ruidoso. Between 1.5 to 3.5 inches of rainfall was observed on the burn scar along with up to 1.5 inches of rainfall in the Village of Ruidoso. Significant to catastrophic flash flooding and debris flows were observed across the burn scar and on the Rio Ruidoso all the way downstream to the Ruidoso Downs horse racetrack and casino. With the extremely high rainfall amounts and debris runoff, the Rio Ruidoso at Hollywood rose from 1.43 feet to major and new record flood stage of 20.24 feet in approximately 30 minutes! This replaced the previous record of 15.86 feet set back on July 20th, 2024 which was also due to burn scar flash flooding and debris flows. Flash flooding and debris flows subsided during the early to mid evening hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.3765, -105.7265)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1264492. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.