Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Southwest Desert Mimbres Basin, New Mexico

2011-02-01 to 2011-02-04 · Southwest Desert Mimbres Basin, New Mexico

Event narrative

High temperatures across the region on Feb 2nd included 16F at Deming and 18F about 10 miles south of Deming. Low temperatures on the morning of Feb 3rd included -3F at Cambray near the Luna/Dona Ana County line on Interstate 10, -1F about 10 miles south of Deming, and 0F at Deming. Numerous frozen and burst water pipes were reported. The Marshall Memorial Library in Deming was closed for some time due to a break in the building's fire suppression system causing damage to the ceiling and insulation.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper low dropped down the Northern Rockies which pushed a back door arctic cold front through the region. An upper level ridge was located over the eastern Pacific with the arctic jet steam diving south to the Mexican border. These two features combined to bring extremely cold air into the Western United States from Alaska and Canada. Numerous areas experienced rolling power outages and natural gas shortages along with burst pipes. The state of New Mexico declared a State of Emergency due to the natural gas shortages.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 284687. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.