Memorial Day weekend and the end of the month of May saw a return to a springtime high wind pattern across northern and central New Mexico. As a Pacific Northwest storm system approached the west coast on May 28, 2022, it steered a potent jet across New Mexico.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 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.
Memorial Day weekend and the end of the month of May saw a return to a springtime high wind pattern across northern and central New Mexico. As a Pacific Northwest storm system approached the west coast on May 28, 2022, it steered a potent jet across New Mexico. Strengthening southwest flow aloft, hot daytime temperatures, and deep mixing resulted in widespread windy conditions across the area. These wind gusts were generally around 40 to 50 mph, but Las Vegas and Tucumcari did briefly measure high wind gusts.
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 28, 10:32 AM MST, 1 hour 14 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 1132 AM MDT Sat May 28 2022 .UPDATE... Overall not a lot of change in the short term forecast. Winds should begin to increase across the state over the next hour or two with wind speeds around 30-40 mph and a few gusts to 50 mph. Roswell currently sitting at 101 degrees for air temp and will likely need to push that high temperature forecast higher. Record high for the day is 105 which is the current forecast. Winds tomorrow may not be quite as high as previously forecast but still higher than what we expect for today. Today may actually be the higher fire weather threat given that there could be more low level moisture tomorrow and lower temperatures keeping relative humidity a little higher. There may not be as many widespread single digit RH tomorrow but still below 15 percent most areas. Red flag warnings look on track. 39 && .AVIATION... 18Z TAF CYCLE TAFs are pretty much a wind forecast. There will be some high clouds today so may see some broken/overcast 250 at several terminals. Otherwise the main issue will be wind gusts and any blowing dust that may kick up to lower visibility. Wind gusts are forecast to be just below 35 knots at KABQ so may need to monitor for an airport weather warning if winds go stronger. Better chances of needing a warning tomorrow afternoon. Highest wind gusts are expected for KLVS this afternoon. Winds may not decrease much overnight over the mountainous areas so KSAF and KLVS could have higher winds. Low level wind shear is a possibility as well but looking to stay below criteria to put in the TAFs. Mountain wave activity may increase overnight as well given the jet stream expected to increase. 39 && .PREV DISCUSSION...313 AM MDT Sat May 28 2022... .SYNOPSIS... A very windy pattern develops today through Memorial Day as strong southwest winds are expected areawide. With exceptionally dry conditions, an extreme fire weather pattern is also expected through Memorial Day. Ongoing fires or any new starts will have the potential to spread rapidly in this pattern. Fortunately, a good change in the weather pattern is currently forecast by the middle of next week as beneficial moisture begins to seep into eastern New Mexico and then towards the Rio Grande Valley. This will increase chances for afternoon thunderstorms, especially Wednesday and Thursday. && .DISCUSSION... SHORT TERM...(TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY)... The overall weather pattern hasn't changed in the short term. Southwest winds will be increasing today for many areas. Have added a few zones to the existing Wind Advisory where guidance values have increased. Near record heat is forecast for a large portion of eastern and parts of central NM this afternoon. With the forecast high of 105 degrees at Roswell, the local criteria for a Heat Advisory is met and would tie the record for today, so have gone ahead with that. That said, satellite imagery indicates a considerable batch of high clouds will move from west to east over the forecast area today. That may help moderate winds and temperatures but leaning toward any moderation not being significant. For Sunday, southwest winds will be just as strong as today or even stronger, so another Wind Advisory will be likely if forecast trends continue unchanged. Highs Sunday will be a few degrees cooler overall and even slightly below normal west of the Continental Divide. Guidance pops indicate a slight chance for a shower or storm over the Northwest Mountains near the Colorado border Sunday but confidence is low any cells will materialize. Areas of blowing dust and smoke are also likely through Sunday. LONG TERM...(SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY)... By Sunday night, the center of the H5 PacNW low will be centered over northern UT where it stays through at least Monday. Strong southwest flow stays in place across NM Monday, although a little less compared to Sunday's forecast winds. 700mb winds Monday afternoon will generally be 30-40 knots while the lee-side surface low deepens to ~989mb. With deep mixing still in place, southwesterly surface winds will stay strong, and another round of widespread wind highlights looks likely. As noted by the previous shift, this PacNW low has slowed down in exiting towards the central plains. Models depict this low staying over UT Tuesday morning before weakening significantly into an open wave by the evening. Additionally, the backdoor cold front now noses into northeastern NM about 24 hours earlier than originally forecast. This has changed the wind forecast for Tuesday. The past several days, models have depicted the core of the polar jet focusing across eastern NM, keeping strong winds in the forecast for areas along the east of the central mountain chain. However, this new trend with a slower and rapidly weakening low now means that flow aloft has trended down for Tuesday, and surface wind speeds have been reduced accordingly. Return flow still looks to set up across the east Tuesday, helping to usher in better low-level moisture. The extended forecast still looks to be on track for the most part as to what has been advertised. With the dryline sharpening along the NM/TX border Tuesday, this will lead to thunderstorms across far eastern NM through the evening. Then outflow from these thunderstorms along with the aforementioned backdoor cold front will help push this low-level moisture farther westward into the RGV Wednesday. This will support better coverage of thunderstorms, especially along and east of the central mountain chain with perhaps more isolated storms within the RGV. Additional outflow should help to push the moisture farther westward one more day towards the Continental Divide for Thursday, again allowing for better coverage for storms across central and eastern NM. While models are trying to hold steady with this beneficial precipitation late next week, a troughing pattern does look to redevelop across the PacNW at the same time. Thus, this redevelops southwesterly flow across western NM. This could interfere with how far westward the low-level moisture is able to make it. Stay tuned, and fingers crossed! 15 && .FIRE WEATHER... ...DAILY ROUNDS OF CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS AREAWIDE TODAY THROUGH MEMORIAL DAY, THEN WIDESPREAD ELEVATED TO NEAR CRITICAL CONDITIONS FORECAST TUESDAY... The upper ridge which was over New Mexico has moved to the east so southwest winds will be increasing today. Today features the most widespread extreme instability combined with above normal to near record heat as well as extreme dryness, with about 8 to 14 hours of single digit humidities for most of the forecast area. An incoming batch of high clouds may help moderate conditions a little but any moderation that does occur isn't anticipated to have much if any impact on the overall forecast. Locally elevated to critical conditions may persist overnight tonight as ridgetop winds don't totally settle down and overnight humidity recoveries are bleak. Sunday will see a repeat of widespread critical conditions as winds will be similar to or stronger than today's, despite temperatures cooling down a few degrees overall and significant stretches of single digit humidities confined to mainly the East Central Plains. Locally elevated to critical conditions may continue into the overnight Sunday night as well, especially along and east of the central mountain chain. Memorial Day will see additional cooling west of the RGV but all ingredients for another day of widespread critical conditions will be in place for most zones except the Northwest Plateau, where at this time, winds will not be quite strong enough to include in the Fire Weather Watch. Tuesday is now appearing as if there will be widespread near critical conditions, as a backdoor cold front makes quicker progress into eastern New Mexico. Low level moisture may push west of the central mountain chain Wednesday night but most convection looks to stay over eastern New Mexico. && .ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Red Flag Warning until 9 PM MDT this evening for the following zones... NMZ101>109. Red Flag Warning from 9 AM to 10 PM MDT Sunday for the following zones... NMZ101>109. Fire Weather Watch from Monday morning through Monday evening for the following zones... NMZ102>109. Wind Advisory until 8 PM MDT this evening for the following zones... NMZ202-205-210-212>216-221>234-237-239. Heat Advisory until 8 PM MDT this evening for the following zones... NMZ238. &&
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
An ASOS station near Las Vegas measured a peak wind gust of 60 mph.
An ASOS station near Tucumcari measured a peak wind gust of 59 mph.
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, May 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: 1018369, 1018371.