Flash Flood — Mckinley, New Mexico

2014-08-03 · near Church Rock, Mckinley, New Mexico

Event narrative

Local news reported that the city of Church Rock was flooded after heavy rainfall. Multiple roads were washed out with access to homes cut off. A few homes were flooded in the area and that the main water line broke under the pressure of all the rushing water. The community was still cleaning up three days after the event.

Wider weather episode

Upper level high pressure that had dominated the weather pattern several days prior shifted to the west. The monsoonal moisture plume shifted slightly to the northeast with general storm motions of 10 to 15 mph. Lingering overnight showers and thunderstorms from the previous night left abundant cloud cover over the area leading to a later start to shower and thunderstorm activity. Showers began to develop into the mid afternoon hours with the threat for heavy rain continuing due to the moisture and slow moving storms. Cells developed in western areas into the mid afternoon moving to the north east. As the storms continued to develop into the evening hours multiple cells trained over the Church Rock area leading to flash flooding. Though storm total and one hour rates were not extremely high the continuous rain over the already saturated ground and the flood prone location caused flooding. There were reports of water in houses as well as the water main breaking due to maximum capacity.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.5300, -108.6000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 525717. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.