Heavy Snow — Curry County, New Mexico

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

Event narrative

As 2 to 4 inches of snow fell across Curry County, roads quickly became icy. A driver of a Toyota sedan traveling on U.S. 60/84 four miles east of Melrose lost traction and slid head on into a pickup truck around 245 pm on the 19th. All four occupants of the sedan were killed, and both passengers of the pick up truck were sent to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

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 352561. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.