Flash Flood — Los Alamos, New Mexico

2013-07-12 · near Los Alamos, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Event narrative

Power outages as well as flooding in the basement at Los Alamos National Labs were reported. An isolated strong cell formed over the area and stayed generally stationary for 2 hours. Rainfall amounts over 1.5 were recorded at sites across LANL.

Wider weather episode

An upper high was parked squarely over New Mexico. Overnight showers across the Gila region in southwestern NM were responsible for significant rainfall amounts across the Whitewater-Baldy burn scar. This caused some flooding with debris deposits along roads in the area. Afternoon showers and thunderstorms developed over the higher terrain then drifted over the plains and adjacent highlands. Storm motions were generally very slow to the north or northeast. Flooding developed at Los Alamos National Labs as an isolated thunderstorm formed directly overhead and remained nearly stationary for an extended period of time. There was also a lightning injury reported from another isolated storm near Santa Fe.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.8633, -106.3237)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 453717. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.