Alert archive / New Mexico / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 50, NWS Albuquerque, NM
NWS Albuquerque, NM issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 23, 1997, 5:53 PM MDT for San Miguel County, New Mexico. It was in force for 62 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The counties it named.
The facts
- Issued
- May 23, 1997, 5:53 PM MDT (23:53 UTC)
- Expired
- May 23, 1997, 6:55 PM MDT
- In force
- 62 min
- Issued by
- NWS Albuquerque, NM
- Area
- Whole counties
County San Miguel County, NM
The radar
The Cannon AFB radar (KFDX), 144 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:54 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
The nearest sounding before it
Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM (KABQ), launched 12:00Z, 11.9 hours before the alert went out and 169 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -199 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1749 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 115 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 196 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
098 WUUS1 KABQ 232349 RRA SVRABQ NMC047-240055- BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 553 PM MDT FRI MAY 23 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ALBUQUERQUE HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 655 PM MDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION... IN NORTHEAST NEW MEXICO ...CENTRAL SAN MIGUEL COUNTY AT 545 PM MDT...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS INDICATED BY ALBUQUERQUE DOPPLER RADAR 30 MILES EAST OF LAS VEGAS OR 4 MILES SOUTH OF MAES MOVING SOUTH AT 15 MPH. SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM ARE...TRUJILLO...GONZALEZ RANCH...TREMENTINA AND VARIADERO. WHEN THUNDERSTORMS ARE OCCURRING...PEOPLE SHOULD MOVE INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING. DO NOT STAND BY WINDOWS. DO NOT USE TELEPHONES OR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES UNLESS IN AN EMERGENCY UNTIL THE STORM HAS PASSED. MOTORISTS SHOULD NOT DRIVE INTO LOW WATER CROSSINGS.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
In the hours before
Special weather statement, May 23, 1:30 PM MDT, 4 hours 23 minutes before
NMZ001>005-009-010-231800- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 130 PM MDT THU MAY 23 1997 RECENT RAINFALL COMBINED WITH SNOW MELT RUNOFF FROM THE MOUNTAINS HAS RESULTED IN HIGH WATER AND FAST FLOWS IN THE RIVERS AND STREAMS ACROSS MUCH OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO. WITH WARMER TEMPERATURES AND IMPROVING WEATHER CONDITIONS EXPECTED FOR MOST AREAS THIS HOLIDAY WEEKEND...THOSE OF YOU WITH PLANS TO SPEND TIME OUTDOORS ALONG THE RIVERS AND STREAMS NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE DANGERS OF THE FAST MOVING WATERS. SMALL STREAMS MAY WELL BE CARRYING TWO TO THREE TIMES THE AMOUNT OF WATER NORMALLY ENCOUNTERED THIS TIME OF YEAR. LARGER WATERWAYS LIKE THE ANIMAS RIVER ABOVE FARMINGTON AND THE RIO GRANDE...BOTH ABOVE AND BELOW COCHITI RESERVOIR...ARE RUNNING HIGHER AND FASTER THAN LAST YEAR. WATER RELEASES FROM NAVAJO RESERVOIR HAVE ALSO INCREASED RECENTLY TO NEAR 5000 CUBIC FEET PER SECOND IN THE SAN JUAN RIVER. THE FORCES GENERATED BY FAST FLOWING WATER SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN LIGHTLY...ESPECIALLY WHEN COMPARED TO LAST YEAR. AT THIS TIME LAST YEAR STREAM AND RIVER FLOW WAS MINIMAL DUE TO LACK OF WINTER SNOW OR SPRING RAINS...ONLY THE FIRE DANGER WAS HIGH. EAP
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in New Mexico, 1997Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1997
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.