New Mexico, 2025

Dust Storm in New Mexico, May 18, 2025

May 18, 2025 · NWS EPZ · 1 event in 1 county or zone

A negatively tilted upper trough was moving northeast through the Four Corners region which brought wind gusts up to 40 mph creating areas of near zero visibility to Luna County.

Where it happened

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.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
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.

What happened

The episode as NWS EPZ wrote it up.

A negatively tilted upper trough was moving northeast through the Four Corners region which brought wind gusts up to 40 mph creating areas of near zero visibility to Luna County.

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 El Paso, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 18, 4:29 AM MST, 6 hours 6 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 18, 4:29 AM MST, 6 hours 6 minutes before
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The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 dust storm. Local standard time, as filed.

Dust Storm, Southwest Desert/Mimbres Basin

When
May 18, 10:35 AM MST to 2:00 PM MST
Where
Southwest Desert/Mimbres Basin forecast zone
Reported by
Department of Highways
Coordinates
32.460, -108.066 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

NM DOT reported New Mexico Highway 549 and New Mexico Highway 11 were closed due to wind creating areas of near zero visibilities in blowing dust.

What these are

Dust Storm
Blowing dust that reduced visibility to a quarter mile or less.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in New Mexico in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, May 2025

Sources

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: 1266218.