Localized heavy snow of 10-12 inches over about 12 hours stranded hunters in the region of Cruces Basin Wilderness located northwest of Tres Piedras in northern Rio Arriba County.
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.
Localized heavy snow of 10-12 inches over about 12 hours stranded hunters in the region of Cruces Basin Wilderness located northwest of Tres Piedras in northern Rio Arriba County.
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 18, 1:10 PM MST, 4 hours 50 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 210 PM MDT WED SEP 18 2002 SHARP...VIGOROUS TROUGH SWINGS THROUGH THE AREA TONIGHT WITH PLENTY OF WIND...RAIN...COOLER TEMPS...AND EVEN SOME HIGH EVEVATION SNOWS. IMPROVING TOMORROW MOST AREAS BUT QUITE COOL...THEN MOSTLY DRY AND WARMER FROM FRI THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. FIRST THE WIND. WILL LET CURRENT WIND ADVISORY DIE A NATURAL DEATH THIS PM AND WILL NOT REISSUE FOR THIS EVE...ALTHOUGH COULD BE A FEW LOCATIONS REACH CRITERIA BRIEFLY. MAIN CONCERN WILL BE TONIGHT OVER THE E...WITH AND FOR A EW HOURS BEHIND PASSAGE OF COLD FRONT. BELIEVE FOR THE MOST PART WINDS REMAIN JUST BELOW CRITERIA SO WILL HOLD OFF ON ADVISORY. WINDS UPSTREAM IN ERN CO AND WY...AND WRN NB AND KS HAVE BEEN JUST BELOW OUR CRITERIA. WINDS DO PICK UP AT 700MB TONIGHT BUT MAY NOT ALL MIX DOWN. WILL KEEP IT WINDY FOR AT LEAST PART OF THU IN THE E. MORE TRANQUIL FRI AND BEYOND. NOW PRECIP. VERY ACTIVE ALL OF THE CWA NOW EXCEPT FAR S AND E AND ENTIRE AREA IN FOR SOME PRECIP TONIGHT. ALL MODELS PINPOINT THE NE FOR THE MOST RAINFALL AND AGREE WITH THIS. CATEGORICAL POPS THIS AREA WITH LIKELY POPS NC MOUNTAINS AND EC PLAINS...CHANCE POPS ELSEWHERE. PRECIP TO CHANGE OVER TO SNOW NRN MOUNTAINS ABOVE 8500 FEET WITH A FEW INCHES ACCUMULATION LIKELY ABOVE 9500 FEET. PRECIP LINGERS INTO THU ACROSS THE E. DRY FRI INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK WITH SLIGHT CHANCE POPS IN THE NC AND NE FOR TUE AND WED AHEAD OF THEN BEHIND ANOTHER COLD FRONT. FINALLY TEMPS. A SHARP CHANGE TO COOLER TONIGHT ALL BUT FAR SE AND MUCH COOLER THU OVER THE S AND E. MOST IMPRESSIVE WILL BE FROM ABOUT TCC TO ROW WITH 20-25 DEGREES OF COOLING. CHILLY THU NIGHT THEN TEMPS REBOUND FRI PM AND SHOULD BE NEAR NORMAL THROUGH THE REST OF THE FORECAST PERIOD. EXCEPTION MAY BE THE NE TUE AND E WED AS ANOTHER COLD FRONT MAY DROP S OVER THIS AREA. ABQ BU 051/073 050/078 054 40410 SAF BU 043/068 039/075 043 40510 TCC EU 051/065 048/079 053 40630 .ABQ...NONE. CHJ
NMZ001>021-026-190400- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 309 PM MDT WED SEP 18 2002 ...WIND...RAIN...SNOW...AND COOLER TEMPERATURES FOR NEW MEXICO... A FALL-LIKE STORM CURRENTLY STRENGTHENING OVER SOUTHWEST COLORADO WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SOUTHEAST...ACROSS NEW MEXICO TONIGHT AND EXIT INTO THE TEXAS PANHANDLE LATE THURSDAY MORNING. MUCH NEEDED RAIN HAS FALLEN ACROSS CENTRAL AND NORTHERN PORTIONS OF THE STATE AND MORE IS ON THE WAY LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT...AS A LARGE AREA OF RAIN WITH EMBEDDED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MOVES INTO THE SOUTHERN HALF. A SECONDARY PUSH OF COOL AIR WILL MOVE INTO THE NORTHEAST LATER TODAY AND THEN DOWN THE PLAINS TONIGHT. AT THE SAME TIME...THE MAIN ENERGY FROM THIS STORM WILL BE MOVING SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE STATE... LEADING TO PERIODS OF RAIN WITH EMBEDDED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS ALL OF THE NORTHEAST. SNOW LEVELS ACROSS THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS WILL LOWER TO NEAR 9000 FEET...WITH ACCUMULATIONS OF A FEW INCHES POSSIBLE ABOVE THE SNOW LEVEL. A MIX OF RAIN AND SNOW IS LIKELY BETWEEN 8000 AND 9000 FEET. WINDS ARE THE OTHER BIG STORY AS THIS COLD FRONT MOVES SOUTH ACROSS THE STATE. SOUTHWEST WINDS AHEAD OF THE FRONT WILL BE ON THE ORDER OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 45 MPH THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THEN LATER...AFTER THE COLD FRONT HAS PUSHED INTO TEXAS... NORTHWEST WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WILL BE COMMON. WINDS ACROSS THE NORTHEAST WILL TURN NORTH AT 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 45 MPH AS WELL...ONCE THE AFOREMENTIONED SECONDARY PUSH OF COOL AIR COMES DOWN. LOWS THURSDAY NIGHT WILL BE QUITE CHILLY WITH 30S AND 40S COMMON. SUNSHINE AND WARMER TEMPERATURES WILL RETURN FRIDAY.
1 heavy snow. 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, 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: 5320356.