High Wind in South Central Highlands, New Mexico

A mesonet station at Little Burro on White Sands Missile Range measured high wind gusts up to 76 mph.

A strong mid and upper level jet at the base of a disturbance over the western U.S. moved over New Mexico during the day April 26th. Deep daytime mixing tapped into these stronger winds aloft by mid morning resulting in strong to high wind gusts across much of central and eastern New Mexico. Very dry antecedent conditions resulted in areas of blowing dust and reduced visibility across central and southern NM. Some showers were observed across northwest and north central New Mexico with one of these showers resulting in a brief 59 mph wind gust at Gallup Municipal Airport. Winds tapered off during the late evening and overnight hours as stronger winds aloft slowly exited east of the state.