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Severe thunderstorms erupted across parts of eastern
New Mexico during the afternoon of Monday, June 6th. Several
reports of large hail in excess of 1.75 inches in diameter
(golfball) were reported along with funnel clouds and possibly
a brief tornado near Causey in Roosevelt County. An outflow boundary
originating from a complex of thunderstorms over west Texas Sunday
night (June 5th) surged westward into eastern New Mexico providing a
substantial boost to low level moisture for storms that developed
along the dryline Monday afternoon. Above this low level moisture
surge, southwest winds aloft were on the order of 30 to 40
mph. The southeast winds at the surface and relatively fast
southwest winds aloft created a strongly sheared environment that
allowed thunderstorms to quickly become severe and persist for
several hours between 3-9 pm.
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| One of the most severe storms on Monday,
June 6th moved across northern Chaves County. Below are two
zoomed-in radar images of the Chaves County supercell that was over
open range land north of Roswell for most of its
lifecycle.
The severe storm produced golfball-sized hail along highway 285
about 12 miles north of Roswell at 3:25 pm MDT, about the time of
the radar image below and to the left. It likely produced even
larger hail as it moved east of highway 285 and crossed the Pecos
River shortly after 4:00 pm MDT and could have spawned a brief
tornado at that time, though no official reports were
received.
Multiple three-body scatter spikes (TBSS) were evident with this
storm as well, one of which is clearly seen in the 4:03 pm MDT radar
image below and to the right. Sometimes referred to as a
"hail spike" or "flare echo," a TBSS is a
radar signature that indicates the presence of very
large hail - in this case probably greater than 2 inches in
diameter. A TBSS is caused when, after striking a hail stone
coated with a thin layer of water, a portion of the scattered radar beam
reflects off the ground below, then back upward, before finally
scattering one last time by the hail core aloft. The three scatterings illustrate the triple reflection,
and thus the term "three-body scatter spike." The
panoramic photograph below was taken as the supercell
thunderstorm approached U.S. highway 70 near Elkins. |
weather.gov 
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