Name: Flash Flood and Heavy Rain in New Mexico, August 20, 2002
Start: 2002-08-20T05:00
End: 2002-08-20T08:00
Location: New Mexico

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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.

Heavy rains developed over east central New Mexico during the late night hours. Near dawn road ditches and numerous low water crossings were full and several roads closed between Elida and Portales from 4 to 6 inches of rain in less than 6 hours. Rains of 3 to 5 inches spread north into Curry County with heavy street flooding reported at Clovis and lots of standing or ponded water edging out into rural roads elsewhere across the county.

What forecasters said that day

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 20, 2:12 AM MST, 2 hours 48 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 20, 2:12 AM MST, 2 hours 48 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM
312 AM MDT TUE AUG 20 2002

A MID-LEVEL LOW AIDED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF BENEFICIAL RAINFALL AND
SCT TSRA ACROSS MUCH OF OUR ERN PLAINS (ESPECIALLY EC) OVERNIGHT AS
IT DRIFTED SLOWLY TOWARD THE N-NE. CURRENT RADAR/SAT LOOPS INDICATE
THAT THE LOW OR AN MCV IS CENTERED JUST SW OF PORTALES WHERE THE
HEAVIEST RAINS HAVE FALLEN SINCE MIDNIGHT.

EXPECT THE SHRA/TSRA ACROSS THE PLAINS TO GRADUALLY DIMINISH IN
COVERAGE AND MOSTLY END BY LATE MORNING AS THE MAIN SUPPORTING LOW
CONTS TO LIFT SLOWLY TOWARD THE NE. 06Z M-ETA HAS CIRCULATION CENTER
EAST OF CLOVIS BY 15Z. THIS MAY NOT BE TOO FAR OFF. SO ALTHOUGH AIR
MASS SHOULD BE SLIGHTLY MORE STABLE ACROSS THE EC PLAINS/CHAVES
COUNTY THAN ON MONDAY, DAYTIME HEATING, LINGERING OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES
AND RESIDUAL MOISTURE ENOUGH TO KEEP SOME MENTION FOR THE AFTERNOON.

ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND WEST, 850-500 MB THETA-E VALUES HANGING IN
THE 335-340K RANGE. DAYTIME HEATING COUPLED WITH WEAK DISTURBANCES
IN THE SWLY FLOW SHOULD TRANSLATE INTO ONE MORE DAY OF SCATTERED
COVERAGE. SOME SHRA/TSRA POSSIBLY LINGERING INTO THE LATE NIGHT
HOURS, BUT NOT AS SIGNIFICANT AS THIS PAST NIGHT.

SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT TO STRENGTHEN ACROSS MAINLY THE NORTHWEST HALF
OF THE FORECAST AREA ON WEDNESDAY WITH THE DREADED DRYING (AND
WARMING) TREND GETTING UNDERWAY. MORE SIGNIFICANT DRYING EXPECTED
THURSDAY AND BEYOND AS UPPER RIDGE EXPANDS WESTWARD AND AXIS BECOMES
ORIENTED E-W ACROSS THE SW CONUS. WILL CUT POPS BACK TO SLIGHT
CHANCE FOR THU-MON. EXCEPTION MAY BE ACROSS THE NORTHEAST WHERE A
FRONTAL BOUNDARY IS FORECAST TO PUSH INTO THAT PART OF THE STATE AS
EARLY AS FRIDAY NIGHT. THIS FRONT MAY INCREASE TSRA CHANCES OVER THE
WEEKEND ACROSS THE EAST. STILL LOOKS DRY IN THE WEST. KJ

ABQ BB 088/065 090/065 091 41231
SAF BB 086/057 088/057 089 41332
TCC BB 092/066 094/067 096 41321=

.ABQ...NONE.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Aug 20, 4:51 AM MST, 9 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE, NM
551 AM MDT TUE AUG 20 2002

TIME(MDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0544 AM    PORTALES                  NM   FLASH FLOOD
08/20/02   ROOSEVELT                      *** 0 DEAD, 0 INJ ***
                                          WIDESPREAD 3 TO 6 INCH
                                          RAINFALL ESTIMATED BY
                                          DOPPLER RADAR. 5 INCHES
                                          MEASURED BY CO-OP IN
                                          PORTALES. PORTALES PD
                                          REPORTED WATER OVER HIGHWAY
                                          114 BETWEEN ELIDA AND DORA.
                                          STREET FLOODING IN DOWTOWN
                                          PORTALES

GB

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Roosevelt

When: August 20, 5:00 AM MST to 6:30 AM MST
Where: Roosevelt County, Elida
Reported by: GOVT OFFICIAL
Coordinates: 34.021, -103.480 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Rain, Curry

When: August 20, 5:00 AM MST to 8:00 AM MST
Where: Curry County, Clovis
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 34.574, -103.347 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Flash Flood: Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.
Heavy Rain: Rainfall totals unusual for the place and season that did not produce a flood.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in New Mexico in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in New Mexico, August 2002

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: 5314930, 5314931.