1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Albuquerque, NM wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 3, 2:00 PM MST, 2 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 300 PM MDT FRI AUG 3 2001 UPPER RIDGE TO TAKE ON A SW TO NE ORIENTATION THROUGH 36 HRS. NE TO E FLOW OVER THE SOUTHERN THIRD OF THE STATE AND A SE TO S FLOW OVER THE WESTERN THIRD WILL PRODUCE WEAK DIVERGENCE OVER THE WESTERN PORTIONS OF THE CWA. ENOUGH INSTABILITY AND HEATING WILL COMBINE WITH THE DIVERGENCE TO RECYCLE THE AVAILABLE MOISTURE TO KEEP A DECENT CHANCE OF DAILY CONVECTION MAINLY ACROSS THE NW THIRD OF CWA. NGM/AVN MOST BULLISH WITH MEAN RH AND THETA-E RIDGE WITH THE NGM BIT TO FAR EAST. ALSO, BELIEVE NGM QPF TOO HIGH OVER CENTRAL PORTIONS OF CWA SAT AFTN. HOWEVER, HEAVY RAIN IS LIKELY OVER NW AND N ZONES. WILL TREND TOWARDS LOWERING POPS EACH CONSECUTIVE DAY THE NEXT TWO DAYS AND THEN MAINTAIN LOW POPS EARLY NEXT WEEK AS UPPER RIDGE TAKES HOLD. BY MIDWEEK AN INCREASE IN POPS IS POSSIBLE AS AVN/MRF INDICATES AN INVERTED TROF...MAYBE REMNANTS OF T.S. BARRY...DRIFTING WEST OVER THE GULF COAST THEN OVER W TEXAS/ERN NM BY WED UNDER AN INCREASING DEEP EASTERLY FLOW. ABQ BB 068/090 068/091 067 49122 SAF EE 059/085 060/087 059 49323 TCC BB 067/097 068/098 068 49000 .ABQ... NONE.
The Albuquerque radar (KABX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:00 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lightning strike fried an entire pumping system on the Rio Rancho city water reservoir. The 7.5 million gallon reservoir dropped to less than 600 thousand gallons before the pump system was restored.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, August 2001
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: 5263416.