High Wind, Westcentral Mountains
- When
- March 23, 1:00 PM MST to 3:00 PM MST
- Where
- Westcentral Mountains forecast zone
- Measured
- 60 kt (69 mph)
- Property damage
- $100,000
High Wind in New Mexico, March 23, 1996
Winds gusting 60 to 70 mph damaged signs and trees and ripped away sections of a restaurant roof causing additional damage to nearby cars and buildings in Gallup. Winds gusting 45 to 55 mph fanned an 8000 acre grassfire northeast of Clayton in Union county.
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 4
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS ABQ wrote it up.
Winds gusting 60 to 70 mph damaged signs and trees and ripped away sections of a restaurant roof causing additional damage to nearby cars and buildings in Gallup. Winds gusting 45 to 55 mph fanned an 8000 acre grassfire northeast of Clayton in Union county. A brush burn on the Isleta Reservation just south of Albuquerque was whipped into a wildfire that consumed 100 acres of the Rio Grande Bosque and closed nearby Interstate 25 for 4 hours because of the smoke.
Event by event
4 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
High Wind, Northeast Highlands
- When
- March 23, 3:00 PM MST to 5:00 PM MST
- Where
- Northeast Highlands forecast zone
- Measured
- 55 kt (63 mph)
High Wind, Middle Rio Grande Valley
- When
- March 23, 3:00 PM MST to 6:00 PM MST
- Where
- Middle Rio Grande Valley forecast zone
- Measured
- 30 kt (35 mph)
High Wind, Far Northeast Plains
- When
- March 23, 3:00 PM MST to 6:00 PM MST
- Where
- Far Northeast Plains forecast zone
- Measured
- 30 kt (35 mph)
What these are
- High Wind
- Sustained non-thunderstorm winds of 40 mph or more for an hour, or gusts of 58 mph or more.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Heavy Snow in Minnesota, March 23 to 25, 1996
- Winter Storm in North Dakota, March 23 to 25, 1996
- High Wind in Kansas, March 23, 1996
- Blizzard in South Dakota, March 23 to 24, 1996
- Blizzard in North Dakota, March 23 to 24, 1996
- Blizzard in North Dakota, March 23 to 24, 1996
- Blizzard in Minnesota, March 23 to 24, 1996
- Heavy Snow in Wyoming, March 23, 1996
- Blizzard in Wyoming, March 23 to 24, 1996
- Winter Storm in Wisconsin, March 23 to 25, 1996
- Heavy Snow in Wisconsin, March 23 to 25, 1996
- Blizzard in Nebraska, March 23 to 24, 1996
More
Every storm in New Mexico in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, March 1996
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5547067, 5547068, 5547069, 5547070.