Power Outage in Portales, NM

A severe thunderstorm tracking southeast through Portales downed several power lines along Commercial Street and along U.S. Highway 70. Damages are estimated for the downed power lines.

A CoCoRaHS observer estimated a thunderstorm wind gust near 60 mph from the northwest that resulted in a power outage for several hours. Additionally, over one and a half inches of rain was measured but no hail observed. Numerous downed power lines were reported across Roosevelt County.

Powerlines down at intersection of Road 7 and T.

Power pole snapped leading to power outages.

There were large tree branches and power lines downed from high winds.

The windows were blown out of a commercial building. Power lines and poles were blown down.

A potent upper level storm system over the western United States continued to pump abundant moisture and instability northward into the New Mexico. Another large area of heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms surged northward over the eastern plains during the early morning hours of the 25th, resulting in saturated soils across much of the area. The next round of showers and thunderstorms that developed by the mid to late afternoon hours dumped torrential rainfall over Chaves, De Baca, Curry, Roosevelt, and Quay counties through the night. A powerful storm that moved through the Fort Sumner area produced flash flooding and several inches of small hail. Numerous road closures were reported. A strong storm that moved through the Portales area produced penny size hail and rainfall amounts near four inches.

Very dry low level conditions combined with weak mid level moisture and instability across central and eastern New Mexico to produce scattered virga showers and gusty thunderstorms. A few of these showers and thunderstorms produced strong outflow winds around the Albuquerque metro area and around Roosevelt County. A well-defined dust foot was observed on the Albuquerque West Mesa with a 59mph wind gust at the Albuquerque Sunport, while strong winds around Portales took out some powerlines to the southwest of town.