Flash Flood — Bernalillo, New Mexico

2015-09-22 · near Albuquerque, Bernalillo, New Mexico

Direct deaths

$50K

Property damage

Event narrative

Media reports indicated a man was swept away and died in fast moving water that filled the north diversion channel arroyo. Eye witness reports noted the man was outside the arroyo before somehow ending up in it and being swept away. Search and rescue attempts by the fire department found the body two hours later in the Rio Grande. The only other information available at this time is that it was a male between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. The intense rainfall rates also washed lots of landscaping material, including rocks, mud, and fabric material, into streets across the metro area. A water mark near Carlisle and Comanche suggested the water was as high as 2 feet in the intersection. Road crews spent several hours cleaning up streets across the city.

Wider weather episode

Remnant tropical moisture moved into New Mexico on the 21st but lack of heating limited significant rainfall rates and impacts. More heating, more instability and plenty of moisture on the 22nd led to scattered thunderstorms across the state. A few of these storms produced wet microbursts that resulted in significant flooding and wind damage. A series of storms hit the Albuquerque metro area through the afternoon, causing lots of street flooding and uprooting a few trees. One person died as a result of strong flows within the arroyo channels despite best rescue efforts. Flash flooding was also reported just north of Roswell, where reported rainfall amounts exceeded 3 inches over just a two hour span. There were reports of a few swift water rescues with no injuries or deaths along with many roads being closed. The 2.45 inches reported at a COOP site north of Roswell was the largest single day rainfall total in the month of September since the historic flash flood event of 2013.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.1167, -106.5943)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 596257. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.