Wildfire — Albuquerque Metro Area, New Mexico

2018-05-15 · Albuquerque Metro Area, New Mexico

Event narrative

A brush fire started in the Albuquerque Foothills near the Elena Gallegos Picnic Area and spread to seven acres. Roughly 20 homes were evacuated, 10 homes were threatened, and three homes suffered minor exterior burn damage.

Wider weather episode

A moist, back door frontal boundary shifted southwest into northeastern New Mexico during the early morning of May 15th. Meanwhile, a broad area of upper level low pressure over the Great Basin was spreading very dry, southwest flow over the remainder of New Mexico. Sufficient moisture and instability in this pattern allowed showers and thunderstorms to form along the east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains during the early afternoon hours. A few of these storms became strong to locally severe as they moved eastward across the eastern plains of New Mexico. The strongest cells moved through the area from eastern San Miguel County into Quay County where penny size hail and heavy rainfall was reported.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 745066. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.