New Mexico, 2024Wildfire in New Mexico, June 17 to 23, 2024
June 17 to 23, 2024 · NWS ABQ · 1 event in 1 county or zone
The devastating South Fork Wildfire was discovered June 17th at 9am MDT within the tribal land along the Rio Ruidoso west of the village of Ruidoso, NM. The fire burned in dry and receptive fuels and exploded in size to 13,921 acres within a day while officially crossing into Lincoln County as elevated fire weather conditions ended up allowing for extreme fire behavior.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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- Deaths
- 2
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $23 million
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
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 devastating South Fork Wildfire was discovered June 17th at 9am MDT within the tribal land along the Rio Ruidoso west of the village of Ruidoso, NM. The fire burned in dry and receptive fuels and exploded in size to 13,921 acres within a day while officially crossing into Lincoln County as elevated fire weather conditions ended up allowing for extreme fire behavior. Evacuation orders were made for the entire Village of Ruidoso on June 17th with shelters being set up across eastern NM including Roswell. The nearby Salt Wildfire in combination with the South Fork Wildfire blocked evacuation routes to the west, leaving only U.S. Highway 70 eastbound as the only route out of Ruidoso. Despite this, an estimated 8,000 people had evacuated. The South Fork Wildfire grew to 15,276 acres by the end of June 18th having destroyed an estimated 1,400 structures. Two people unfortunately lost their lives from the wildfire with New Mexico State Police having found the remains of one deceased in a vehicle on Rainier Road in Ruidoso, and a 60 year old man in the Swiss Chalet Motel in Ruidoso. Weather conditions changed rapidly from an elevated to critical fire weather pattern to a moist and cooler pattern resulting in severe thunderstorms. Heavy rainfall and severe hail was observed over the South Fork Wildfire on June 19th. This helped greatly to subdue the fire, but at the cost of flash flooding and debris flows. Growth of the fire slowed considerably surpassing 16,000 total acres before the heavy rains started. Rains continued on June 20th and 21st allowing fire crews to reach 31 percent containment by Sunday afternoon on the 23rd. Total acreage burned reached 17,569 acres as of late June. Active fire activity ended by June 23rd thanks to the abundant heavy rainfall and monsoon moisture. This total acreage is split over both Otero and Lincoln Counties.
What forecasters said that day
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 17, 4:24 AM MST, 3 hours 36 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jun 17, 4:24 AM MST, 3 hours 36 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED
National Weather Service Albuquerque NM
524 AM MDT Mon Jun 17 2024
...New AVIATION...
.SYNOPSIS...
Issued at 210 AM MDT Mon Jun 17 2024
Hot with breezy south to southwest winds and elevated to critical
fire weather conditions through Tuesday. Moisture increases across
eastern NM behind a backdoor front Wednesday resulting in the return
of shower and storm chances during the afternoon and evening. Storm
outflow and higher moisture push through the central mountain chain
Wednesday evening bringing a strong east canyon wind to Albuquerque
and Santa Fe Metro Wednesday evening. Higher moisture makes it all
the way to the Arizona border come Thursday. This higher moisture
along with the remnants of a tropical wave will bring better chances
for shower and storms areawide Thursday and Friday. Flash flooding
will be possible on recent burn scars.
&&
.SHORT TERM...
(Today through Tuesday)
Issued at 210 AM MDT Mon Jun 17 2024
An upper level trough/low moving east across the Great Basin and
will steer stronger westerly winds over the area and bring a
deepening lee side trough, leading to breezy to windy conditons by
afternoon. Another hot day is forecast, with high temperatures above
normal most areas. Roswell overachieved yesterday and tied a daily
record at 107 degrees. Downslope winds will help boost Roswell's
high temperatures another degree today, with 108 forecast and a Heat
Advisory in effect. The latest NAM is showing convective initiation
along the TX border late this afternoon, where the SPC has a
marginal risk for severe storms. Any convection that develops will
move quickly east into TX, but there will be a window of a few hours
late this afternoon into the early evening hours when storms could
impact locales such as Clovis and Portales. Westerly winds aloft
will become more southwesterly Tuesday and trend down as the upper
level trough/low ejects northeast out of the northern Rockies. Deep
layer mixing will lead to strong wind gusts by late afternoon
Tuesday, but winds will be notably less than today's. Any convection
that develops will be isolated near the TX border once again, but
the capping inversion will be difficult to overcome. Another Heat
Advisory is likely for the Chaves County plains Tuesday, with
Roswell forecast to hit a high of 105 degrees.
&&
.LONG TERM...
(Tuesday night through Sunday)
Issued at 210 AM MDT Mon Jun 17 2024
As a shortwave within the larger scale upper level trough over
the northern Rockies exits northeast to the northern Great Plains
Tuesday night, it will send a weak backdoor front with higher
moisture behind it into northeast NM. A stray shower/storm could
develop along the backdoor front in far northeast NM early
Wednesday morning. Simultaneously, southeast return flow on the
southwest flank of high pressure centered over the northeast U.S.
will push higher Gulf moisture from Texas west into southeast and
east central NM. Upslope flow and higher moisture across the east
slope of the central mountain chain will result in the development
of some showers and storms. However, models vary on the coverage
of showers and storms with the GFS more bullish and the ECMWF and
NAM depicting less. This could be due to the subsidence ahead of
the tropical wave axis over central Texas. Elsewhere, breezy south
to southeast winds will be present across central NM including
ABQ due to the strong moisture/density gradient along the central
mountain chain (much lower moisture west of the central mountain
chain and higher moisture east of the central mountain chain).
Outflow from any storm activity across eastern NM, strengthening
southeast flow on the western flank of the upper high and higher
moisture from the tropical wave over Texas will help finally push
a strong east canyon wind through the gaps of the central mountain
chain through the ABQ and Santa Fe metros Wednesday evening. The
GFS guidance has east winds at KABQ peaking at 33 kts with the
initial push while ECMWF guidance has around 25 kts with that
initial push. A strong east canyon wind is definitely possible due
to the high moisture difference on either side of the central
mountain chain. Ensemble and deterministic models agree in Gulf
moisture pushing all the way to eastern AZ come Thursday morning.
There is slightly better agreement regarding the track of the
tropical wave over Texas late week. Most deterministic and ensemble
guidance now have the western flank of the upper high over the south
central US. The deterministic ECMWF is an outlier with the western
flank a little further west, but overall it looks like the wave
moves along the Rio Grande and Texas/Mexico border Thursday. Higher
cloud cover and moisture spread west into eastern NM. This higher
cloud cover and thus cooler temperatures (10 to 20 degrees below
average) could help to limit instability for the development of
heavier rainfall producing storms and thus result in more widespread
rainfall with embedded storms late Thursday into Friday. Lower
rainfall rates would be better for the HPCC/ McBride and Blue 2 burn
scars. Elsewhere some convective storms will be possible across
western and north central NM Thursday and Friday afternoon and
evening due to being of the western edge of the higher moisture
combined with weak disturbances embedded aloft in the southwest flow
ahead of a baggy trough over southern CA. A new center of the upper
high develops over the state come the weekend. However, mid and low
level moisture will remain under the ridge resulting in diurnal
showers and storms first over the higher terrain before spreading to
lower elevations through outflow boundaries. Rainfall rates will
probably be greater for the weekend storm activity due to warmer
temperatures and higher instability as a result. Thus, chances for
burn scar flash flooding will probably increase.
&&
.AVIATION...
(12Z TAFS)
Issued at 431 AM MDT Mon Jun 17 2024
VFR conditions prevail and are forecast to persist through the TAF
period, with a possible exception. Brief MVFR conditions in
thunderstorms are possible near the TX border this afternoon and
may impact KTCC (very low probability). Stronger southwest winds
are forecast to develop across much of the area this afternoon,
with frequent gusts to between 30-35kts.
&&
.FIRE WEATHER...
Issued at 210 AM MDT Mon Jun 17 2024
...CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER WESTERN AND PORTIONS OF NORTHERN NM THIS
AFTERNOON...
An upper level trough moving east across the Intermountain West will
steer stronger westerly winds aloft over the region today and bring
a deepening lee side trough, leading to windy conditons with a hot,
dry and unstable airmass in place. Added the Upper Rio Grande Valley
to the Red Flag Warning for today, where the forecast of critical
fire weather conditions have trended up from the previous forecast
cycle. Winds will trend down Tuesday, but a hot, dry and unstable
airmass will persist. Hot, dry and unstable conditions will be
relegated to western NM on Wednesday as the combination of a
backdoor front and Gulf moisture bring higher humidity and chances
for wetting storms to areas along/east of the central mountain
chain. Moisture will progress west across the area Wednesday night
and set the stage for a rounds of wetting storms going through the
weekend.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
Farmington...................... 93 57 87 56 / 0 0 0 0
Dulce........................... 88 46 84 45 / 0 0 0 0
Cuba............................ 88 52 85 52 / 0 0 0 0
Gallup.......................... 90 48 87 46 / 0 0 0 0
El Morro........................ 88 51 85 50 / 0 0 0 0
Grants.......................... 91 49 88 48 / 0 0 0 0
Quemado......................... 90 51 88 50 / 0 0 0 0
Magdalena....................... 92 59 91 59 / 0 0 0 0
Datil........................... 88 54 87 54 / 0 0 0 0
Reserve......................... 91 45 89 47 / 0 0 0 0
Glenwood........................ 96 59 93 61 / 0 0 0 0
Chama........................... 81 44 80 45 / 0 0 0 0
Los Alamos...................... 88 60 86 59 / 0 0 0 0
Pecos........................... 87 55 86 54 / 0 0 0 0
Cerro/Questa.................... 82 47 82 46 / 0 0 0 0
Red River....................... 75 45 74 43 / 0 0 0 0
Angel Fire...................... 79 39 78 39 / 0 0 0 0
Taos............................ 89 48 87 49 / 0 0 0 0
Mora............................ 85 50 85 48 / 0 0 0 0
Espanola........................ 94 57 93 56 / 0 0 0 0
Santa Fe........................ 90 58 89 58 / 0 0 0 0
Santa Fe Airport................ 94 58 92 57 / 0 0 0 0
Albuquerque Foothills........... 95 65 93 64 / 0 0 0 0
Albuquerque Heights............. 97 64 95 64 / 0 0 0 0
Albuquerque Valley.............. 99 63 98 62 / 0 0 0 0
Albuquerque West Mesa........... 97 64 96 64 / 0 0 0 0
Belen........................... 100 59 98 59 / 0 0 0 0
Bernalillo...................... 97 64 96 63 / 0 0 0 0
Bosque Farms.................... 99 58 98 59 / 0 0 0 0
Corrales........................ 98 62 96 62 / 0 0 0 0
Los Lunas....................... 99 59 98 59 / 0 0 0 0
Placitas........................ 94 64 92 63 / 0 0 0 0
Rio Rancho...................... 97 65 95 64 / 0 0 0 0
Socorro......................... 100 64 99 64 / 0 0 0 0
Sandia Park/Cedar Crest......... 89 59 88 58 / 0 0 0 0
Tijeras......................... 91 60 89 59 / 0 0 0 0
Edgewood........................ 91 58 90 56 / 0 0 0 0
Moriarty/Estancia............... 93 53 91 53 / 0 0 0 0
Clines Corners.................. 89 54 88 54 / 0 0 0 0
Mountainair..................... 91 58 90 56 / 0 0 0 0
Gran Quivira.................... 91 57 90 56 / 0 0 0 0
Carrizozo....................... 94 64 93 63 / 0 0 0 0
Ruidoso......................... 89 59 89 57 / 0 0 0 0
Capulin......................... 90 54 90 52 / 0 0 0 10
Raton........................... 94 53 91 54 / 0 0 0 5
Springer........................ 96 55 93 55 / 0 0 0 5
Las Vegas....................... 89 55 89 52 / 0 0 0 0
Clayton......................... 97 64 95 60 / 0 0 5 10
Roy............................. 94 60 92 58 / 0 0 0 5
Conchas......................... 99 66 99 65 / 0 0 0 0
Santa Rosa...................... 98 63 97 63 / 0 0 0 0
Tucumcari....................... 100 67 99 65 / 0 10 5 5
Clovis.......................... 98 66 97 66 / 20 10 10 10
Portales........................ 99 67 98 67 / 20 10 10 10
Fort Sumner..................... 101 67 100 68 / 0 0 0 0
Roswell......................... 108 69 105 71 / 0 0 0 0
Picacho......................... 99 63 97 61 / 0 0 0 0
Elk............................. 95 60 93 57 / 0 0 0 0
&&
.ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
Red Flag Warning from noon today to 8 PM MDT this evening for
NMZ101-105-109-121-123.
Heat Advisory from noon today to 9 PM MDT this evening for
NMZ238.
&&
SHORT TERM...11
LONG TERM....71
AVIATION...11
Wildfire, South Central Mountains
- When
- June 17, 8:00 AM MST to June 23, 11:00 PM MST
- Where
- South Central Mountains forecast zone
- Deaths
- 2 direct, 0 indirect
- Property damage
- $23 million
- Reported by
- Emergency Manager
- Coordinates
- 33.745, -105.459 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
The South Fork Fire was discovered on June 17th within tribal land along the Rio Ruidoso west of Ruidoso. It blew up in size within its first two days reaching 15,000 acres and destroying an estimated 1,400 structures. Two lives were lost, an as of yet identified person in a vehicle on Rainier Road due to the limited remains, and a 60 year old Patrick Pearson within the Swiss Chalet Motel. The fire's growth slowed considerably by the 19th due to heavy rainfall causing flash flooding on the burn scar. Flash flooding and debris flows exacerbated recovery efforts. Many of the structures lost were located within the eastern and northeastern portion of the burn area including areas from Alto to Cellars Canyon and Cedar Canyon down to the upper Rio Ruidoso. Damage is an estimate based on number of structures destroyed.
- Wildfire
- A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
- Strong Wind in Illinois, June 17, 20241 death · 1 injured · 1 event
- Flash Flooding and Hail in Ohio, June 17 to 20, 20243 injured · $363,000 · 1.75 in hail · 50 events
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Wisconsin, June 17, 2024$300,000 · EF1 · 7 events
- Wildfire in California, June 17 to 28, 2024$700,000 · 2 events
- Wildfire in Colorado, June 17 to 20, 2024$500,000 · 1 event
- Hail and Damaging Winds in North Dakota, June 17 to 18, 2024$153,000 · 1 in hail · 13 events
- Damaging Winds in Pennsylvania, June 17, 202450 kt wind · 54 events
- Damaging Winds in Michigan, June 17, 2024$75,000 · 52 kt wind · 2 events
- Damaging Winds in New York, June 17, 2024$31,000 · 51 kt wind · 19 events
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Wisconsin, June 17, 2024$55,000 · 1.5 in hail · 5 events
- Damaging Winds in Indiana, June 17, 2024$54,000 · 56 kt wind · 4 events
- Damaging Winds in Ohio, June 17, 2024$32,000 · 50 kt wind · 14 events
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: 1176524.