1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 Sep 13, 3:30 AM MST, 10 hours 6 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 430 AM MDT FRI SEP 13 2002 CENTER OF UPPER TROUGH HAS NOT MOVED MUCH SINCE THIS TIME YESTERDAY WITH TROUGH AXIS STILL NORTHWEST OF THE 4 CORNERS. MODELS SIMILAR IN HANGING AXIS BACK AND BRINGING IT ACROSS THE CWA IN TWO PIECES. THE FIRST ONE TODAY...WHICH WILL PRODUCE ANOTHER ROUND OF CONVECTION. COULD BE AS POTENT AS YESTERDAY. MAIN CONCERN WILL STRAIGHT LINE WIND POTENTIAL AS MID LAYERS CONTINUE TO DRY OUT. ALSO...HAIL AND ROTATING SUPERCELLS WILL BE A GREATER THREAT ACROSS THE EAST LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING HOURS WHEN SURFACE HEATING AND SHEAR PROFILES ARE MAXIMIZED. CONVECTION SHOULD START OUT FIRST OVER THE NORTHWEST AND NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND SPREAD EAST AS WAS THE CASE YESTERDAY. THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF SUNSHINE THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS AND DEWPOINTS WILL BE SLOW IN MIXING OUT. WOULD SUSPECT SW ZONES TO HAVE THE LOWEST POPS WITH A GRADUAL INCREASE AS WE GO NORTH AND EAST. TEMPS TODAY A LITTLE COOLER ACROSS THE NORTH AS THE INITIAL TROUGH AXIS SWINGS THROUGH LOWERING HEIGHTS FROM YESTERDAY. SOUTH AND EAST SHOULD SEE SIMILAR TEMPS AS WHAT WAS REPORTED ON THU. THE SECOND SPOKE (MAIN AXIS) SWINGS THROUGH THE 4 CORNERS LATE TONIGHT AND GRADUALLY TRANSVERSE THE CWA ON SATURDAY. DECENT SURFACE HIGH BUILDS IN FROM THE NORTH AS MODERATELY STRONG COLD FRONT CROSSES THE FORECAST REGION. ORIENTATION OF THE UPPER TROUGH (NORTHEAST-SOUTHWEST) AND PLACEMENT OF THE SURFACE RIDGE LOOKS LIKE AN UPSLOPE EVENT FOR MUCH OF THE EAST ON SATURDAY. POST FRONTAL LIGHT RAIN WITH EMBEDDED SHOWERS COULD BE A WIDESPREAD LOW POP EVENT. NGM/ETA EVEN PUSH MID LEVEL 70 PERCENT MEAN RH CLOSE TO THE DIVIDE UNDER A DECENT NORTHEAST FLOW. TEMPS ON SATURDAY WILL BE DIFFICULT. CCA...UPSLOPE...CLOUDS AND RAIN COULD ALLOW TEMPS TO BE LOWER THEN GUIDANCE. AVN THE COOLEST... SHOWS UPPER 50S AND LOW 60S ACROSS MUCH OF THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND NORTHEAST. WESTERN ZONES WILL ALSO BE BELOW NORMAL...TEMP WISE...BUT WILL SEE DRY CONDITIONS. WILL TREND FORECAST IN THIS DIRECTION AND WILL TAKE THE BOGEY IF IT DOES NOT MATERIALIZE. UPPER RIDGE IN SIGHT AND WILL BEGIN TO SPREAD ACROSS CWA ON SUNDAY. GRADUALLY WARMING TEMPERATURES AND DRIER CONDITIONS. AVN/GFS CONTINUES TO INDICATE THE RIDGE FLATTENING MONDAY AS POTENT SHORT WAVE TROUGH MOVES ACROSS THE NORTHERN ROCKIES. WESTERLIES TAKE HOLD THROUGH THE BEGINNING OF NEXT WEEK. ABQ BE 076/054 072/052 076 49221 SAF BE 074/047 068/045 073 49231 TCC BE 083/057 068/055 075 49353 .ABQ...NONE. GB
NMZ001>021-026-132300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR NORTH AND CENTRAL NEW MEXICO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 1100 AM MDT FRI SEP 13 2002 NORTH AND CENTRAL NEW MEXICO SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS MUCH OF EASTERN AND SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. MAIN THREAT FROM THE POTENTIAL SEVERE STORMS WILL BE DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH AND LARGE HAIL. ELSEWHERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL PRODUCE GUSTY MICROBURST WINDS OF 40 TO 50 MPH AND SMALL HAIL. BURNED AREA RAIN OUTLOOK...SMALL AMOUNTS OF RAIN CAN STILL PRODUCE MAJOR FLASH FLOODING IN AREAS THAT HAVE SUFFERED RECENT LARGE WILDFIRES. THE POTENTIAL FOR FLASH FLOODING NEAR AND DOWNSTREAM FROM BURNT AREAS TODAY AND TONIGHT... IN WESTERN COLFAX COUNTY...MODERATE TO HIGH. IN NORTHERN SANTA FE AND SOUTHEAST RIO ARRIBA COUNTIES...MODERATE TO HIGH. LOS ALAMOS AND SAN MIGUEL COUNTIES...MODERATE AND IN LINCOLN COUNTY...MODERATE TO HIGH. WEATHER SYNOPSIS...THE ATMOSPHERE IS QUITE UNSTABLE TODAY AND THERE IS SUFFICIENT MOISTURE TO FUEL AFTERNOON THUNDERSTORMS. THERE IS ENOUGH WIND SHEAR TO ORGANIZE THUNDERSTORMS...ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE SOUTH AND EAST. AS STORMS BECOME ORGANIZED THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...SOME OF THE STORMS WILL BECOME SEVERE. SPOTTER ACTIVATION...COULD BE NEEDED LATER TODAY AND THIS EVENING. COUNTIES IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO WHERE SKYWARN SPOTTERS MAY BE REQUIRED... LINCOLN... SOCORRO... CATRON... UNION... HARDING... QUAY... CURRY... ROOSEVELT... COLFAX... MORA... SAN MIGUEL... GUADALUPE... TORRANCE... DE BACA... CHAVES... THIS OUTLOOK PRODUCT IS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES TO IDENTIFY POTENTIAL HAZARDOUS OR LIFE THREATENING WEATHER. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE SPECIFIC STATEMENTS OR WARNINGS RELATED TO FLASH FLOODS AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. THIS OUTLOOK PERTAINS TO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NEW MEXICO. FOR FAR SOUTHEAST NEW MEXICO USE PRODUCT WWUS84 KMAF. FOR SOUTHCENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO USE PRODUCT WWUS84 KEPZ.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A brief tornado was reported over open rangeland in far northern Chaves County.
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 historyThe tornado archive for New Mexico, 2002Warnings in New Mexico, September 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: 5320355.