Funnel Cloud — Mckinley, New Mexico

2014-07-28 · near Crownpoint, Mckinley, New Mexico

Wider weather episode

An active and persistent pattern maintained a heightened threat for flash flooding across much of the state. An upper level high was centered over portions of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. A disturbance rotating around the upper high slowly shifted from west central to north central areas throughout the overnight hours. Weak steering flow aloft combined with a very moist airmass in place fueled slow-moving thunderstorms that produced very heavy rainfall and flash flooding. Showers and thunderstorms began developing during the late morning hours on the 28th over the Southwest Mountains, the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the West Central Plateau and the Northern Mountains. Coverage expanded and intensified into the afternoon hours with small, heavy rain-producing cells. Activity slowly began to decrease into the evening hours. However, by 3am, a large swath of light to moderate rain with embedded heavy precipitation had developed across the central highlands. Thunderstorms began training over the area from Santa Rosa eastward to near Newkirk. This swath of precipitation slowly moved eastward throughout the early morning hours finally subsiding by 11am the 29th. Due to ground already saturated from the previous days rainfall, significant flooding occurred across portions of Guadalupe and De Baca counties. In particular, major flash flooding was reported within the Alamogordo Creek drainage. River flooding was also reported along the Pecos River near Puerto de Luna. Radar estimated storm total accumulations ranged from 7 to 13 inches in this area. These torrential rains washed out the supports underneath train tracks near Santa Rosa leaving the track suspended in air. Numerous other reports of flooding including asphalt up-ended and roads closed due to flowing water occurred in east central areas.

Converging outflow boundaries from storms in Western New Mexico created enough rotation to produce small rope like funnel clouds as well.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.6900, -108.1500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 524606. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.