Flash Flood — Cibola, New Mexico

2019-08-27 · near Correo, Cibola, New Mexico

Event narrative

Tribal law enforcement reported water flowing out of a creek over a section of Reservation Road 54 near Sparrow Hawk Road.

Wider weather episode

A moisture intrusion moved west into central New Mexico behind a shallow back door cold front on August 27, 2019. Strong afternoon heating and instability led to a few showers and thunderstorms around the higher terrain. Weak steering flow allowed outflow boundaries to dominate storm development in the lower elevations through the late afternoon hours. A thunderstorm that developed over Rio Rancho shortly after 4 pm moved south over Intel and into the Cottonwood Mall area. The greatest impact from this storm was penny to quarter size hail near the Sandoval/Bernalillo county line. Another cluster of storms that developed west of Albuquerque during the late evening hours produced torrential rainfall, hail, gusty winds, and frequent cloud to ground lightning strikes. Laguna Pueblo reported water flowing out of Arroyo Colorado across Reservation Road 55.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.9618, -107.2064)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 840761. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.