Strong west to northwest winds aloft were able
to mix down to the surface on March 14th, thanks to the higher
sun angle and more intense heating, which resulted in a deeper
mixed layer of air in the lower atmosphere. The wind profiler
below, from Tucumcari,
illustrates the winds on the 14th throughout the atmosphere.
Note time (shown near the bottom) progresses from right to left
and
is listed in Greenwich time (14 = 8am; 23 = 5pm). The strong
winds created extensive areas of blowing dust and
sand, and helped trigger
several grass fires across the state. The biggest fire was northwest
of Hobbs that covered over 10,000 acres and burned four homes.
A 3,000 acre grass fire was between Roswell and Elkins, along both
sides of route 70. Smaller grass fires were in
Sandoval county and near Madrid in Santa Fe county.
www.srh.weather.gov 
National
Weather Service Weather Forecast Office
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