High winds developed across northeast sections of the state and also in the middle Rio Grande Valley where falling trees or limbs knocked down power lines serving about 5000 customers in Albuquerque and the nearby Sandia Mountain communities.
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 episode as NWS ABQ wrote it up.
High winds developed across northeast sections of the state and also in the middle Rio Grande Valley where falling trees or limbs knocked down power lines serving about 5000 customers in Albuquerque and the nearby Sandia Mountain communities.
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 May 21, 9:35 AM MST, 3 hours 25 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 1035 AM MDT TUE MAY 21 2002 EXPANDED WIND ADVISORY BASED ON KABX VWP AND ON 12Z ETA FCST OF H7 WINDS EASTCENTRAL. NORTHWEST CWA HAS DRIED OUT COMPARED TO YESTERDAY AND EXPECT FURTHER LOW LEVEL DRYING TODAY AND TONIGHT. SO IF THERE IS CONVECTION IN THE NW TODAY...WHICH I DOUBT...NO RAIN WILL REACH THE GROUND. REMOVED MNTN OF SHRA FROM NW THIS AFTN. ADDED MENTION OF THUNDER TO FAR EASTERN ZONES. JUST TOO RISKY NOT TO HAVE SOME MENTION GIVEN THE DEWPOINTS AND SINCE I EXPECT WINDS TO STAY OUT OF SOUTH OR SOUTHEAST. THE MISSING INGREDIENT IN THE EAST IS A TRIGGER...OR MESOSCALE LIFTING MECHANISM. I CANT FIND ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR WEAK UPSLOPE. SO I ONLY WENT WITH 10 POPS. JWS .ABQ...WIND ADVY THIS AFTERNOON NMZ001>-013-021-
5 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, May 2002
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: 5288328, 5288329, 5288330, 5288331, 5288332.