The North American Monsoon arrived early this year and stayed active throughout all of the month of July 2022 across northern and central New Mexico. Most of the month saw a traditional monsoon pattern develop which meant that the monsoonal moisture plume was focused primarily across western and central New Mexico.
Every event with a place to put it; 41 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 episode as NWS ABQ wrote it up.
The North American Monsoon arrived early this year and stayed active throughout all of the month of July 2022 across northern and central New Mexico. Most of the month saw a traditional monsoon pattern develop which meant that the monsoonal moisture plume was focused primarily across western and central New Mexico. This allowed for daily rounds of thunderstorms to focus in these areas with eastern New Mexico commonly seeing more hot and dry days rather than rainy ones. Precipitation totals across western and central New Mexico were generally around 2 to 4 inches during the month with some locally higher amounts in the northern high terrain. Across the east, precipitation totals were generally less than one inch. The drought improvements noted in June continued throughout the month of July with now 76 percent of the state in at least severe drought. About 33 percent of that was in at least extreme drought with about 11 percent in the exceptional category. Most of the improvement was along and west of the central mountain chain with no improvement across the eastern plains.
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 Jun 30, 10:35 PM MST, 1 hour 25 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 1135 PM MDT Thu Jun 30 2022 .AVIATION... 06Z TAF CYCLE Scattered shra with embedded isold ts remain over parts of central and western NM, and this activity will taper off over the next few hours. Outflow from ts activity over CO has pushed swd into the northeastern plains, and will bring brief gusty winds to KTCC b/w 0630Z to 08Z. Otherwise, conditions turn mostly calm going into Friday morning and with remnant debris cigs. Another round of diurnal convection is expected to fire up over the high terrain starting at 18Z Friday before moving over surrounding lower elevations. VCTS is included at a number of terminals for this activity except KFMN- KTCC-KROW as these sites look to be a bit too far away to get direct impacts from storms. Models show another convective outflow bdry spreading swd through the eastern plains again tomorrow evening, bringing a repeat round of gusty winds to KTCC past 00Z. 24 && .PREV DISCUSSION...318 PM MDT Thu Jun 30 2022... .SYNOPSIS... A few showers and thunderstorms will continue across western and northern New Mexico overnight as monsoon moisture increases from the south. An uptrend in storm coverage is forecast for Friday as moisture combines with a weak cold front moving in from the northeast. The active monsoon pattern continues into the 4th of July Holiday weekend with scattered to numerous afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms producing locally heavy rainfall for western and central portions of the state. The monsoon moisture plume is forecast to drift eastward early next week with eastern areas of the state getting into the act. High temperatures will be near average for early July. && .DISCUSSION... .SHORT TERM (TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT)... 12Z upper air data showed the upper high slowly weakening and moving east over north central/northeast NM compared to 24hrs prior. PWATs were on the uptrend across central and western NM and the 12Z KABQ upper air sounding showed an increase to 0.85" from 0.72" 24hrs prior. This trend is forecast to continue through Friday night, with PWATs trending up to above 1" at KABQ as the upper high continues a slow weakening and southeast drift. Today's crop of daytime heating triggered storms is an improvement from yesterday's limited round, but we're expecting a more significant uptick Friday. The monsoon moisture plume, which shows nicely on the latest water vapor satellite imagery across central/western AZ and far western NM, will shift east Friday through Friday night and position squarely over our area. This increase in moisture, combined with a weakening upper high and a weak backdoor front, explains the forecast uptick in storm coverage and qpf for Friday. The backdoor front will move south out of CO tonight, aided by convective outflow, and will bring added moisture and forcing to the Sangre De Cristos and adjacent highlands for Friday. Combine this with daytime heating and weak westerlies around the top of the weakening upper high circulation and we have the ingredients for deep sustained convection capable of producing heavy rain across the Sangre De Cristos, adjacent highlands and even Union Co. The southwest mountain may also be setup for some heavy rainfall Friday given the moisture surge and even weaker steering flow. Will issue a Flash Flood Watch for Cerro Pelado and Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon burn scars for Friday afternoon/evening and may need to consider expanding to include areas from near Raton to near Clayton given good run-to-run consistency from the NAM showing more significant qpf of 1-2" in that area. Otherwise, daytime temperatures will trend down several degrees across central and western NM Friday due to added cloud cover and anticipated rain-cooling. LONG TERM...(SATURDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY)... Elongated upper-level high over the Southern Plains and South continues in place Saturday through the 4th of July weekend. The moist flow between this high and a closed low just off of the PACNW will continue to result in scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms each afternoon and evening over the northwest half or so of the state. Both the GFS and ECMWF limit convective development on Sunday thanks to a subsidence inversion strengthening over the southeast half of the state. GFS seems too dry with the NAM and ECMWF breaking out thunderstorms over much of the the northwest third or so. Given that PWATs are forecast to be above climatology and with plenty of sunshine forecast for Sunday morning, trended precipitation chances slightly up above NBM guidance Sunday afternoon and evening as a result. Monsoon moisture plume is forecast to shift slightly eastward Monday with more storms expected over the northeast and central highlands and possibly western edges of the eastern plains. GFS and ECMWF both bring up an easterly wave in the flow Tuesday which will likely help trigger numerous to widespread showers and thunderstorms Tuesday and especially Wednesday. By Thursday, the Four Corners' or monsoon high strengthens over northern AZ and southern UT, helping to shift the monsoon moisture along and east of the central mountain chain. Then, much like last year, the high becomes quite the behemoth (602dm) over eastern UT and western CO. The easterly flow aloft begins scouring out monsoon moisture from northern NM with the southern half of the state favored for afternoon storms. Additionally, the ECMWF ensemble or ENS weekly precipitation anomaly forecasts are hot off the presses (June 30), indicating that the monsoon (likely reverse) is here to stay despite the Four Corners' beast setting up over the Eastern Great Basin and Central Rockies. 11/33 && .FIRE WEATHER... The monsoon moisture plume will shift east over the state Friday into Saturday, bringing the return of scattered to numerous wetting storms with the potential for burn scar flooding. An active wetting storm regime with higher humidity will persist through the weekend and into early next week, favoring central and western NM. By the middle of next week, a new upper high center is forecast to build up over UT/CO, which will allow chances for wetting storms across the eastern plains to trend up. Daytime temperatures will generally be at or below normal through the forecast period due to the added cloud cover and anticipated rain-cooling. Humidity recovery will generally be good to excellent through the weekend and into the middle of next week. 11 && .ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Flood Watch from Friday afternoon through Friday evening for the following zones... NMZ211-214-215. &&
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
41 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme to exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Extreme to exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate to severe drought in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate to severe drought in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe to extreme drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate to severe drought in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate to severe drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Extreme to exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 improved to moderate drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe to extreme drought in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe drought in July.
Extreme to exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme to exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Severe to extreme drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme to exceptional drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
Extreme drought conditions from June 2022 improved to severe to extreme drought in July.
Severe drought conditions from June 2022 continued in July.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, July 2022
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: 1034424, 1034425, 1034426, 1034427, 1034428, 1034429, 1034430, 1034431, 1034432, 1034433, 1034434, 1034435, 1034436, 1034437, 1034438, 1034439, 1034440, 1034441, 1034442, 1034443, 1034444, 1034445, 1034446, 1034447, 1034448, 1034449, 1034450, 1034451, 1034452, 1034453, 1034454, 1034455, 1034456, 1034457, 1034458, 1034459, 1034460, 1034461, 1034462, 1034463, and more.