Blizzard — Guadalupe County, New Mexico

2011-12-19 to 2011-12-20 · Guadalupe County, New Mexico

Event narrative

Western portions of Guadalupe County received approximately one foot of snow, including around Vaughn. Eastern portions of the county generally received around 6 inches. The icy roads combined with blowing and drifting snow due to the strong winds, caused a single car rollover in Vaughn. The lone occupant was killed.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level storm system moved across southern New Mexico, and initially brought heavy snow to western and central New Mexico. Then, a very strong cold front plowed across the northeast and east central plains bringing winds up to 60 mph and more heavy snow. More than a foot of snow fell across Union County. This caused drifts to be more than 6 feet high in some locations, which stranded holiday travelers, and in at least one case, buried them.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 352558. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.