Flash Flood — De Baca, New Mexico

2018-09-06 · near Dunlap, De Baca, New Mexico

Event narrative

Fences were washed out along state road 20. Debris was forced over the roadway. Damages are a very rough estimate.

Wider weather episode

Deep atmospheric moisture in place across eastern New Mexico interacted with an upper level disturbance drifting eastward across the state. A large area of showers and thunderstorms that developed along the Interstate 40 corridor during the evening hours of the 5th drifted southwestward into De Baca County through the early morning hours of the 6th. An area of very heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms became stationary over De Baca and northern Chaves County and resulted in impressive rainfall totals in a three to six hour period. The area along state road 20 between Fort Sumner and U.S. Highway 285 picked up between two and four inches of rain, with isolated amounts over seven inches based on radar estimates. Fences were washed out along highway 20 and debris forced over the road. The Pecos River downstream from this location at Acme reported a six foot rise 12 hours later.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.9977, -104.5798)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 772591. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.