National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

A storm formed off the southern California coast and strengthened on the 18th and 19th, before turning inland and reaching New Mexico late on the 21st into the 22nd. The 2 frame water vapor loop below shows the storm's progress from the 20th to early on the 22nd.

A powerful upper level jet stream translated across the central Rockies Monday October 25th.  Meanwhile a strong surface pressure gradient set up across New Mexico as a deep low pressure system developed across western Kansas.  The combination of strong upper level winds and deep surface pressure over the state allowed for widespread strong winds to develop across New Mexico by late Monday morning.  Wind gusts over 70 mph were reported across many locations along the east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains Monday afternoon. The graphic below illustrates a model forecast of the upper level winds early on the 25th.  Note the large swath of 140 knot winds stretching from the Pacific northwest southeast into the northwest corner of New Mexico. 

The westerly component to these winds is ideal for allowing air to accelerate rapidly downward along the north to south oriented mountain ranges of New Mexico.  As  these winds travel downward along the east slope of a mountain range they are compressed and warmed. These type of winds are called katabatic winds, or more commonly, downslope winds.  They go by different names across the world but folks across the United States are probably most familiar with the Chinook winds that affect the east slopes of the northern Rockies.  The image below is the 1km MODIS visible channel courtesy  of NASA SPoRT valid at 240 PM MDT.  Note the area of clear skies along the east slopes of the central mountain chain from Raton south to Las Vegas and Clines Corners while the remainder of the area to the west is experiencing mostly cloudy skies.  Peak westerly wind gusts within this clear area were greater than 70 mph.