Alert archive / New Mexico / Flash Flood Warnings in 1999

Flash Flood Warning 75, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX

June 21, 1999Lea County, New Mexico

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this flash flood warning at Jun 21, 1999, 7:56 PM MDT for Lea County, New Mexico. It was in force for 2 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline the Iowa Environmental Mesonet reconstructed for it; the warning itself named whole counties.

The facts

Issued: Jun 21, 1999, 7:56 PM MDT (01:56 UTC)
Expired: Jun 21, 1999, 10:00 PM MDT
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

County Lea County, NM

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 143 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:55 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

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 1.9 hours before the alert went out and 158 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.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 677 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1074 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KMAF 220157
FFWMAF
NMC025-220400-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND-ODESSA TX
756 PM MDT MON JUN 21 1999

THE MIDLAND-ODESSA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  EASTERN LEA COUNTY IN NEW MEXICO

* UNTIL 1000 PM MDT

* AT 756 PM MDT...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED A
  THUNDERSTORM WITH VERY HEAVY RAIN OVER EAST CENTRAL LEA COUNTY
  ABOUT 12 MILES NORTHEAST OF LOVINGTON.  LITTLE OR NO MOVEMENT WAS
  INDICATED.

RADAR ESTIMATES THAT BETWEEN 3 AND 4 INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN IN AN
AREA SOUTH OF US 380 AND NORTH OF US 82.  AN ADDITIONAL 2 TO 3 
INCHES OF RAIN IS POSSIBLE FROM THIS STORM.

DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE
ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS
SAFELY. VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE ABANDONED QUICKLY.
MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.

DURING THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT...FLOODED SECTIONS OF ROAD MAY NOT BE
VISIBLE TO MOTORISTS. SOME ROADWAYS MAY EVEN BE CLOSED.

LAT...LON 3303 10331 3296 10320 3302 10310 3313 10306
          3322 10306 3322 10321 3314 10331

70

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this flash flood warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Jun 21, 1:12 PM MDT, 6 hours 44 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 21, 1:12 PM MDT, 6 hours 44 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX
212 PM CDT MON JUN 21 1999

NEARLY SATURATED...TROPICAL AIRMASS REMAINS IN PLACE ACROSS THE CWA
AGAIN TODAY...WITH ABOUT THE SAME GENERAL SYNOPTIC SCALE PATTERN AS
YESTERDAY. AM CONCERNED ABOUT THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY RAINFALL WITH
THE RELATIVELY WEAK WINDFIELD PRESENT...BUT DO NOT SEE ANY OBVIOUS
TRIGGERING MECHANISMS THAT WOULD RESULT IN WIDESPREAD CONVECTIVE
DEVELOPMENT. THE WEAK TROF AND VORT MAX OVER SE NM THAT HAVE BEEN
SUPERIMPOSED UPON THE RIDGE HAVE BEEN A CONCERN TO US THE PAST FEW
DAYS...AND THESE FEATURES ARE STILL SHOWING UP ON THE MODELS.
HOWEVER...I CANNOT SEE ANY EVIDENCE OF CIRCULATION ON THE WATER
VAPOR IMAGERY. LAST FEW FRAMES OF IR AND VISIBLE IMAGERY HINT AT SOME
CIRCULATION IN THE VICINITY OF ANDREWS/GAINES COUNTY...BUT THIS COULD
BE A RESULT OF CLOUD MOTIONS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS GIVING THE
APPEARANCE OF CIRCULATION. ONLY OTHER THING OF NOTE THIS AFTERNOON IS
WHAT APPEARS TO BE A WEAK HIGH-LEVEL DEFORMATION AXIS STRETCHING TO
THE NW-SE ACROSS THE AREA...RESULTING MAINLY FROM THE BROAD SCALE
ANTICYCLONIC CIRCULATION ACROSS NORTHERN MEXICO. STORMS SEEM TO BE
DEVELOPING ALONG THIS DEFORMATION AXIS TO THE SE...AND HAVE BEEN
SLOWLY DEVELOPING NWWD ALONG THIS AXIS. WILL HAVE TO KEEP A EYE ON
THIS TO SEE IF DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES NWWD INTO THE MAF CWA.

WILL FORGE AHEAD WITH THE RELATIVELY CONSERVATIVE PCPN FORECAST...
CONSIDERING THE AMOUNT OF MOISTURE THAT IS IN THE ATMOSPHERE. WILL
BASICALLY FOLLOW EXISTING FORECAST THAT IS IN PLACE FOR TONIGHT AND
TOMORROW...WITH 30 AND/OR 40 POPS MOST AREAS. LOCALIZED HEAVY
RAINFALL IS A DEFINITE POSSIBILITY...BUT IT WILL PROBABLY NOT BE TOO
WIDESPREAD. LOOKING AHEAD TOWARD TOMORROW NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...
MODELS KEEP THE RIDGE CENTERED OVER NORTHERN MEXICO WITH ANTICYCLONIC
CIRCULATION CONTINUING ACROSS THE AREA. UPPER LEVEL FLOW PATTERN
BECOMES MORE WLY/NWLY...WITH MODELS FORECASTING THE WEAK SHORTWAVE
THAT IS PRESENTLY SUPERIMPOSED UPON THE RIDGE TO MOVE EASTWARD AND TO
REGAIN SOME OF ITS DEFINITION. I BELIEVE THIS WILL PROVIDE MORE OF AN
IMACT ON AREAS TO THE EAST. IT APPEARS THAT THERE WILL STILL BE
PLENTY OF MID AND HIGH LEVEL MOISTURE CAUGHT UP IN THE RIDGE OVER
NORTHERN MEXICO...AND THIS WILL PROBABLY KEEP A MODERATE AMOUNT OF
CLOUDINESS AROUND THE CWA.

PRELIM NUMBERS...
MAF 65/88/66/91 3332
CNM 68/91/66/94 3321
MRF 59/83/59/86 4331
P07 67/88/68/90 3332

DJK

The office that day

Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 21, 6:47 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy	43 min
Jun 21, 7:30 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Eddy	2 hr
Jun 21, 9:23 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Eddy	3 hr
Jun 21, 10:00 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Lea	4 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in New Mexico, 1999 Every flash flood warning in 1999

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.