Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Southern Desert, New Mexico

2011-02-01 to 2011-02-04 · Southern Desert, New Mexico

Event narrative

High temperatures reported across the area on Feb 2nd included 18F at Las Cruces, 16F in Santa Teresa at the National Weather Service Office, 12F at the White Sands Missile Range Headquarters and 13F at Northrup Landing. Morning low temperatures on Feb 3rd included 0F at Las Cruces, -20F at Jornada, -5F at the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa, -10F at the White Sands Missile Range Headquarters and -15F at Northrup Landing. Numerous frozen and broken pipes were reported, natural gas pressure was at all-time lows and schools were closed for 4 days due to all the problems caused by the cold.

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 284689. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.