| Autumn weather cont.
At about 5:30 PM Doppler radar showed at least one of the storms just west of Las Cruces was rotating, signifying it was a mesocyclone and thus capable of producing a tornado. Local spotters and area residents also witnessed a possible funnel cloud with this storm as indicated on the photograph above. Thus a tornado warning was issued for Dona Ana County. While no tornado was actually reported, thunderstorms did produce hail, strong winds and almost an inch of rain in less than 10 minutes in the Mesilla/ western Las Cruces area early in the evening. By October 27 yet another low pressure system advanced across the eastern Pacific into Arizona with this system also pulling abundant moisture northward into the borderland. Thus thunderstorms and heavy rains developed over western New Mexico during the afternoon of the 27th with the activity spreading eastward through the evening and into the morning hours. During the morning of the 28th, 2 to 3 inches of rain were estimated over portions of Dona Ana County just west and south of Las Cruces with street flooding reported around Anthony. In addition, 1 to 2 inches of rain fell over a few locations between Deming and Silver City during the entire period. Later in the morning and into the early afternoon the showers and thunderstorms pushed further east, with moderate to brief heavy rains around the Alamogordo, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas vicinities. Less than a week later, the next round of strong showers and thunderstorms hit the borderland as a cold front swept west to east across New Mexico and west Texas. From the late afternoon of November 3 into the morning hours of the 4th between 1 and 2 inches of rain fell over eastern portions of El Paso County |
and western areas of Hudspeth County in western Texas with small hail also falling over the city of El Paso. In southwestern New Mexico, around a half inch to an inch of rain fell from the Deming area northward into the lower Gilas. Local spotters reported that the rains had brought the west fork of the Gila River to near flood stage before the rains stopped. During the afternoon and evening of November 4, after the storms had moved to the east, winds gusted to over 50 miles an hour in the El Paso area as cooler air behind the cold front pushed rapidly into the region. The Grand Finale of the autumn began on November 7 and continued through the next day. Once again another powerful low pressure system moved into Arizona pulling middle and high level moisture into the southern Rockies. However, the situation was complicated further when northerly surface winds pushed much cooler air into the lower levels. The result was a major winter storm for the mountain areas of southern New Mexico with up to 14 inches of snow near Cloudcroft and 12 inches to the north of Silver City. The heavy snow resulted in some road closures, including Highway 90 between Deming and Silver City. In the lower elevations, showers and a few thunderstorms produced half inch to one inch rains from the Deming area east to around El Paso before the rains turned to sleet and light snow. After this storm moved to the east, relatively tranquil weather finally returned to the borderland as winds aloft remained more westerly and most storm systems tracked further north. Thus for the remainder of November generally dry conditions prevailed with occasionally breezy winds and temperatures near or slightly below normal. |