Hail — Dona Ana, New Mexico

2006-09-13 · near Mesilla, Dona Ana, New Mexico

Wider weather episode

A heavy precipitation supercell thunderstorm tracked from far eastern Luna County eastward along Interstate 10 through Las Cruces. This storm dropped golf ball size hail throughout most of its lifetime, resulting in a 4 car collision on Interstate 10 in far eastern Luna County, and hundreds of damaged roofs and automobiles and destroyed skylights in Mesilla and south Las Cruces. The US Border Patrol Checkpoint was evacuated. Wind damage from a possible tornado occurred at the state fairgrounds west of Las Cruces (mainly to outbuildings and trees), while a tornado was sighted briefly just west of Mesilla. This was the costliest hail storm in the history of the NWS El Paso county warning area, totaling more than $10 million in damage from large hail driven by strong winds. Finally, 2 inches of rain within 30 minutes caused flash flooding in Picacho Hills (far west Las Cruces) and forced the closure of I-10 in western Dona Ana County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.2667, -106.8000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5534770. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.