A Pacific Northwest storm system that began to approach the west coast on May 28, 2022, continued its track across the central Rockies on May 29th. As it continued to track to the north of New Mexico, it steered its associated jet across the state.
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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 Pacific Northwest storm system that began to approach the west coast on May 28, 2022, continued its track across the central Rockies on May 29th. As it continued to track to the north of New Mexico, it steered its associated jet across the state. With similar conditions of strong southwesterly winds aloft, hot daytime temperatures, and deep mixing, afternoon surface winds had no trouble strengthening. While these winds were generally below high wind criteria, a couple sites, particularly across western New Mexico, did measure wind gusts near 60 mph.
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 29, 2:48 PM MST, 52 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...CORRECTED National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 348 PM MDT Sun May 29 2022 .SYNOPSIS... Strong southwest winds and fire weather concerns will continue through Memorial Day. The recent cooling trend will continue Monday, when readings will bottom out in the 70s and 80s across the west and north, and mostly in the 80s to mid 90s elsewhere. Weaker winds are expected Tuesday, but it will still be gusty and very dry as temperatures begin to rebound. A moist backdoor cold front will introduce a chance of showers and thunderstorms to eastern areas Tuesday night, maybe as far west as the central mountain chain Wednesday afternoon, then as far west as the continental divide Thursday and Friday. The best chance for any wetting precipitation will be found across the eastern plains, with a gusty mix of wet and dry storms further west each day. && .DISCUSSION... SHORT TERM...(TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT)... Upper level low over the northern parts of the Great Basin will continue to support a strong jet stream moving across the Great Basin and through the southern Rockies. Water vapor imagery shows plenty of wave action within the core of the jet. Colder air aloft will steepen lapse rates over the Four Corners and may be enough for a few showers this afternoon and tonight for the NW Plateau and Tusas Mtns. Main concern here will be any downbursts that cause high winds gusts and blowing dust tonight. Deep mixing to possibly as high as 500mb will support gusty winds at the surface. Right now most peak wind gusts have been in the 35-45 mph range but suspect there will be a few above 50 mph later this afternoon and evening. Several short term guidance have highest winds closer to 00Z. Winds should remain above 10 knots for most areas tonight with a few gusts. Given the wave activity noted in water vapor imagery, mountain wave breaking could also provide some higher wind gusts. Moisture recovery should be better tonight given higher dewpoints but still not great. Monday is shaping up to be a not as windy day but still a windy day. There may be the next for a few wind advisories but most areas should have winds less than that. Winds still are high enough for critical fire weather conditions so Red Flag Warnings will be in place yet again. Temperatures do continue a downward trend as the upper low moves over the central Rockies with falling 500mb heights. Winds finally drop off more significantly Monday night into Tuesday ahead of a backdoor cold front. This front should push down the eastern plains Monday night into Tuesday. 39 LONG TERM...(TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY)... Breezy conditions are forecast in most places on Tuesday as another upper level low pressure system weakens while shifting eastward across the central Rockies. It will keep the flow over NM fairly brisk with the strongest surface winds Tuesday potentially reaching 45 mph over the northern mountains. Humidities will again be very low Tuesday, even behind a backdoor cold front that drops into northeast areas Monday night. High temperatures will vary from 4 degrees below normal near the Four Corners to as much as 8 degrees above normal on the southeast plains Tuesday afternoon. As the storm system exits eastward from the central Rockies, a stronger and moister backdoor cold front is forecast to push west southwestward through the NM Wednesday afternoon and night, which is a little slower than previous forecast packages. The front should push westward all the way to the continental divide by sunrise Thursday, with a potentially strong gap wind below canyons opening into the central valley late Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Gusts could peak near 50 mph in Albuquerque below Tijeras Canyon. The backdoor cold front will increase low level moisture enough for showers and thunderstorms to develop mainly over eastern areas Tuesday night and Wednesday. The potential exists for isolated cells over the central mountain chain as well, but with PWATs only about a half inch there cells should be on the gusty and dry side. A ridge of high pressure will begin to move over NM from the west Thursday, but modest low level moisture introduced by the backdoor cold front Wednesday night should enable isolated, gusty, and dry thunderstorms to develop over the central valley and westward to the continental divide Thursday afternoon. Further east scattered to isolated cells are expected Thursday. With PWATs only around 0.75" along the central mountain chain, there will probably be a mix of wet and dry cells there Thursday afternoon. Models depict a moist southeasterly low level return flow setting up over central and eastern areas Thursday night, which could set the stage for a scattered to isolated mix of wet and dry storms as far west as the continental divide on Friday if the return flow pans out. Probably cells on the western edge of the moisture will be dry with wetter activity favoring the central mountain chain eastward. Drier air is forecast to move in from the west on Saturday with breezy to windy conditions developing, warmer temperatures, and more fire weather concerns as a broad upper low begins moving into the northwest US. 44 && .FIRE WEATHER... ...CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS AREAWIDE TODAY AND MEMORIAL DAY... Another day another red flag warning. Most areas are experiencing critical fire weather conditions and we look for those conditions to continue tomorrow. We decided to add the NW Plateau fire weather zone to the red flag warning for tomorrow. Conditions will still be borderline critical but model guidance has trended a little more drier and more windy than before. Higher end critical conditions will be expected basically from the Upper Gila region through the eastern Plains. This corresponds well to where the higher end winds are expected to occur for tomorrow along with single digit RH. Tuesday will still be a very dry day but winds should be less. We do not think we will need a red flag warning but will continue to evaluate. The main concern will be the progress of a backdoor cold front through the eastern plains and how far west it pushes. The Highlands could still get some higher winds but it looks like maybe only an hour or two of critical conditions. Moisture continues to be forecast to increase across the eastern half of the state for Wednesday into Thursday so we should get a break in critical fire weather conditions. Thunderstorm chances also increase but will be elevated storms as another back door front pushes into NM Wednesday night into Thursday. 39 && .AVIATION... 18Z TAF CYCLE Overall wind forecast and TAFs are on track. While we do not anticipate any ceiling issues we will need to watch KFMN and KGUP for some elevated convection and enhanced winds from potential downbursts. GFS LAMP showing much higher winds in the 4 Corners region than previous model runs. Otherwise believe wind forecast to be on track for the rest of the terminals. KLVS could potentially see a gust to 50kts but not confident enough to put that in the TAFS. Likely need another AWW for KABQ as wind gusts should start to pick up above 35kts later this afternoon. Winds do look to stay elevated overnight with mountain wave activity. There could be some wind shear issues but surface winds will likely stay high enough to forgo mention in KSAF/KLVS TAFs. 39 && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Farmington...................... 42 72 40 80 / 10 0 0 0 Dulce........................... 36 66 34 76 / 30 0 0 0 Cuba............................ 39 71 39 82 / 5 0 0 0 Gallup.......................... 37 74 36 80 / 5 0 0 0 El Morro........................ 39 71 38 77 / 0 0 0 0 Grants.......................... 39 75 37 82 / 0 0 0 0 Quemado......................... 42 77 40 83 / 0 0 0 0 Magdalena....................... 48 80 47 84 / 0 0 0 0 Datil........................... 43 76 42 83 / 0 0 0 0 Reserve......................... 39 80 38 85 / 0 0 0 0 Glenwood........................ 50 82 50 88 / 0 0 0 0 Chama........................... 32 61 33 70 / 40 0 0 0 Los Alamos...................... 47 71 46 78 / 0 0 0 0 Pecos........................... 45 73 45 80 / 0 0 0 0 Cerro/Questa.................... 38 64 39 73 / 5 0 0 0 Red River....................... 34 60 34 70 / 10 0 0 0 Angel Fire...................... 30 62 29 72 / 10 0 0 0 Taos............................ 38 70 37 78 / 5 0 0 0 Mora............................ 41 70 40 75 / 0 0 0 0 Espanola........................ 47 79 45 85 / 0 0 0 0 Santa Fe........................ 45 74 47 81 / 0 0 0 0 Santa Fe Airport................ 45 77 44 82 / 0 0 0 0 Albuquerque Foothills........... 53 81 54 84 / 0 0 0 0 Albuquerque Heights............. 52 83 51 85 / 0 0 0 0 Albuquerque Valley.............. 51 85 49 88 / 0 0 0 0 Albuquerque West Mesa........... 52 83 51 88 / 0 0 0 0 Belen........................... 51 87 50 89 / 0 0 0 0 Bernalillo...................... 50 83 49 87 / 0 0 0 0 Bosque Farms.................... 47 86 46 87 / 0 0 0 0 Corrales........................ 52 84 50 88 / 0 0 0 0 Los Lunas....................... 49 86 48 88 / 0 0 0 0 Placitas........................ 52 79 51 85 / 0 0 0 0 Rio Rancho...................... 52 82 51 87 / 0 0 0 0 Socorro......................... 54 90 52 92 / 0 0 0 0 Sandia Park/Cedar Crest......... 48 74 48 78 / 0 0 0 0 Tijeras......................... 48 78 48 83 / 0 0 0 0 Edgewood........................ 46 78 45 80 / 0 0 0 0 Moriarty/Estancia............... 43 80 40 84 / 0 0 0 0 Clines Corners.................. 45 75 43 79 / 0 0 0 0 Mountainair..................... 49 80 47 82 / 0 0 0 0 Gran Quivira.................... 49 80 48 84 / 0 0 0 0 Carrizozo....................... 55 83 55 87 / 0 0 0 0 Ruidoso......................... 50 76 51 83 / 0 0 0 0 Capulin......................... 44 72 41 74 / 0 0 0 0 Raton........................... 45 75 41 78 / 0 0 0 0 Springer........................ 48 78 42 80 / 0 0 0 0 Las Vegas....................... 47 74 42 79 / 0 0 0 0 Clayton......................... 52 82 49 80 / 0 0 0 0 Roy............................. 50 79 46 79 / 0 0 0 0 Conchas......................... 58 88 51 90 / 0 0 0 0 Santa Rosa...................... 56 85 52 87 / 0 0 0 0 Tucumcari....................... 60 91 54 94 / 0 0 0 0 Clovis.......................... 58 88 57 90 / 0 0 0 5 Portales........................ 60 90 57 92 / 0 0 0 0 Fort Sumner..................... 60 90 56 92 / 0 0 0 0 Roswell......................... 62 96 59 98 / 0 0 0 0 Picacho......................... 56 87 54 92 / 0 0 0 0 Elk............................. 54 85 52 89 / 0 0 0 0 && .ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Red Flag Warning until 10 PM MDT this evening for the following zones... NMZ101>109. Red Flag Warning from 11 AM to 9 PM MDT Monday for the following zones... NMZ101>109. Wind Advisory until 9 PM MDT this evening for the following zones... NMZ201>208-210>241. && CORRECTED SYNOPSIS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
An ASOS station near Gallup measured a peak wind gust of 63 mph.
An ASOS station near Farmington measured a peak wind gust of 59 mph.
A portable RAWS station near Cowles 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: 1018375, 1018374, 1018376.