A slow-moving thunderstorm that developed near the higher terrain southeast of Gallup moved slowly westward and produced torrential rainfall along state road 602. Images captured by NMDOT showed the highway completely flooded out with significant erosion to the nearby arroyo.
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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.
A slow-moving thunderstorm that developed near the higher terrain southeast of Gallup moved slowly westward and produced torrential rainfall along state road 602. Images captured by NMDOT showed the highway completely flooded out with significant erosion to the nearby arroyo. Large jersey barriers that were in place along the roadway were moved several feet. No injuries or other significant damage occurred.
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 Jul 20, 10:46 AM MST, 3 hours 10 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 1146 AM MDT Thu Jul 20 2017 .AVIATION... 18Z TAF CYCLE SHRA/TSRA will focus over central and western NM today where an axis of moist instability is sliding northwest across the region. Storm motions will be toward the north/northwest btwn 15 and 20kt. Direct hits will produce strong outflows and brief heavy rainfall. The best chances will be near KGUP where the longest duration for TSRA is expected. Storms are firing up quickly south of KABQ so VCTS may occur earlier than projected. SHRA/TSRA will linger into the evening along and west of the Cont Dvd where thick mid level cloud cover may persist until sunrise. Another round of storms with even greater coverage of heavy rainfall is likely Friday for central and western NM. Guyer && .PREV DISCUSSION...312 AM MDT Thu Jul 20 2017... .SYNOPSIS... A slight increase in thunderstorms is expected today, mostly in western and south central New Mexico as moisture gradually begins to seep back into the area. Temperatures will run a couple degrees cooler in western New Mexico today, but the eastern plains will remain warm to hot and just slightly above average for mid July. On Friday, thunderstorms will become a bit more widespread, and by this weekend much of northern and central New Mexico will observe scattered to numerous storms in the forecast with temperatures decreasing a few degrees below normal by Sunday. && .DISCUSSION... High pressure will stay east of New Mexico today with winds aloft veering some. Water vapor satellite imagery already shows winds aloft having gained a bit of a southerly component and mid level moisture advection is in progress. Forecast models peg the southwestern and west central zones of NM faring the best for storm coverage and also the Sacramento/Capitan mountains. The increase in moisture and mid to upper level cloudiness should drop temperatures down a few degrees in the southwestern quadrant of the forecast area. Steering flow will be fairly light, and could pose a locally heavy rainfall threat. Into Friday high pressure will begin to split with one centroid stretching farther east over Tennessee and another weak center shaping up over Nevada/Utah. A weakness between these centers should allow subtropical moisture to seep a bit farther north and east into NM. Winds aloft will be very light and would not be surprised if an ill-defined deformation zone tries to set up near or north of NM. At any rate the relatively low 500 mb pressure heights should not be able to suppress convection much, and the crop of storms should grow more expansive through Friday afternoon and evening. Temperature guidance is beginning to respond down a couple to a few degrees in central to western zones where clouds and storms will build. Westerly flow will attempt to sag into the central Rockies and plains with a healthy slug of convection taking shape over Colorado and a surface wind boundary extending east northeast into Kansas. Meanwhile the western centroid of the high will become cut off and strengthen slightly over Nevada. This will keep moisture intact over NM with the Colorado convection potentially throwing out a mesoscale cold pool that will lead to convection in north central NM. All-in-all Saturday should be an active convective day with temperatures falling a few degrees where the more robust storm coverage is anticipated. Into Saturday night and Sunday, the forecast will turn more tricky as the evolution of the aforementioned mesoscale cold pool and associated surface wind shift will dictate many sensible weather elements. The GFS and NAM model are both boasting a substantial slug of convection and a widespread shift in winds over much of NM into Sunday. While surface pressure/wind fields in the European do not appear as contaminated by the convection, it does still introduce a wind shift with storm coverage expanding into the east central to northeaster zones of NM Sunday. High temperatures were nudged down a few degrees as guidance is clearly getting skewed by increased thunderstorm coverage, and overall confidence is growing in the slightly cooler than average and wetter pattern for both Saturday and Sunday, but the finer details are still being hashed out. The Nevada high begins creeping back east next week, slowly crossing from Utah into Colorado through Tuesday, and eventually into Kansas by the middle of next week. While supplemental subtropical moisture is not a given, it appears there should be plenty to recycle for at least a near climatological convective regime through the first half of the week. 52 && .FIRE WEATHER... Flow aloft over NM will become more southerly today as a weak easterly wave over northern Mexico weakens and slides wwd and the upper high over the southern plains becomes the dominant weather player. Scattered thunderstorms will return to much of western NM with isolated activity over the Sandias/Manzanos and Jemez. Very dry air aloft over the Sangres and eastern plains will keep all but a shower/storm or two from developing. Enough mid-level moisture returns to the Sangres Friday for isolated activity. Scattered convection is forecast for much of the area west of the central mountain chain. Saturday still looking like a very active thunderstorm day areawide as the Four Corners high re-establishes itself over southern NV and a nly wind maxima moves into northern NM. Scattered to numerous afternoon thunderstorms will favor the western two-thirds of the state with scattered evening convection expected across the eastern plains during the evening. A few of the storms could become strong to severe. Rain cooled air over south-central CO Saturday evening sends a backdoor boundary swwd through the state Saturday night. GFS shifts convective focus to ern NM Sunday along/near this boundary while the ECMWF keeps the entire state active. In fact, the ECMWF keeps convection going over much of the forecast area Sunday evening, a rarity for it to keep convective activity going past 00Z. GFS once again hits mainly ern NM with convection Monday afternoon and evening while the ECMWF keeps most of the area quite active. Tough call to pick one model over the other with a lot depending on how strong the thermal low becomes over northeast AZ and where the backdoor boundary ends up stalling. Dewpoint temperatures remain in the upper 40s mountains to mid 50s and lower 60s lowlands through the week, keeping fire weather concerns to a minimum. ECMWF keeps the upper high over the Southern Plains and the monsoon moisture plume over NM through the work week while the GFS parks the upper high over CO and KS, drying things out a bit over NM Tuesday through Thursday. 33 && .ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. &&
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 353 AM MDT Thu Jul 20 2017 NMZ501>540-211100- Northwest Plateau-Chuska Mountains-Far Northwest Highlands- Northwest Highlands-West Central Plateau-West Central Mountains- West Central Highlands-Southwest Mountains- San Francisco River Valley-San Juan Mountains-Jemez Mountains- West Slopes Sangre de Cristo Mountains- Northern Sangre de Cristos above 9500 feet/Red River- Southern Sangre de Cristos above 9500 feet- East Slopes Sangre de Cristo Mountains-Upper Rio Grande Valley- Lower Chama River Valley-Santa Fe Metro Area- Middle Rio Grande Valley/Albuquerque Metro Area- Lower Rio Grande Valley-Sandia/Manzano Mountains-Estancia Valley- Central Highlands-South Central Highlands-Upper Tularosa Valley- South Central Mountains-Raton Ridge/Johnson Mesa- Far Northeast Highlands-Northeast Highlands-Union County- Harding County-Eastern San Miguel County-Guadalupe County- Quay County-Curry County-Roosevelt County-De Baca County- Chaves County Plains-Eastern Lincoln County-Southwest Chaves County- 353 AM MDT Thu Jul 20 2017 This hazardous weather outlook is for portions of northern and central New Mexico. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight Scattered to numerous thunderstorms are expected to redevelop over west central to southwestern New Mexico today. Some slow moving storms could produce locally heavy rainfall this afternoon and into the evening. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Friday through Wednesday Storms are then expected to become more numerous day-by-day, spreading farther north and east through the weekend and into early next week. Storm motions will often remain slow and rainfall could become locally heavy at times. This may lead to localized areas of flash flooding. Some of the stronger storms may also produce small hail and wind gusts to 50 mph. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotters are encouraged to report rainfall and any flooding through the National Weather Service Albuquerque web site at weather.gov/abq or by calling 1.888.386.7637. You can also submit storm reports and photos on our Facebook page or via Twitter using the hashtag nmwx. 52
Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 143 PM MDT THU JUL 20 2017 NMZ505-506-202015- West Central Mountains-West Central Plateau- 143 PM MDT THU JUL 20 2017 ...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR WEST CENTRAL MCKINLEY COUNTY UNTIL 215 PM MDT... At 143 PM MDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near Gallup, moving northwest at 10 mph. Penny size hail and wind gusts up to 50 mph will be possible with this storm along with heavy rain. Locations impacted include... Gallup, Yah-Ta-Hey, Rock Springs, Red Rock State Park, Mentmore, Allison, Gamerco and Church Rock. This includes Interstate 40 between Mile Markers 12 and 28. If threatening weather approaches your area, take shelter in a sturdy building. && LAT...LON 3545 10857 3534 10875 3552 10897 3568 10871 TIME...MOT...LOC 1943Z 143DEG 10KT 3546 10872
The Albuquerque radar (KABX), 177 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:58 UTC.
1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Water surging four feet deep over state road 602 at mile marker 24. Jersey barriers along the roadway were pushed half way across the roadway. Highway was closed for several hours.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, July 2017
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: 703275.