At 800 AM PDT Monday, August
28, 2006, the Tropical Prediction Center in Miami, FL began issuing advisories
on Tropical Depression Eleven-E. By 200 PM PDT that same afternoon
the storm system was quickly upgraded to Tropical Storm John. The
storm was upgraded again the next day to a hurricane and strengthened
to a dangerous category four hurricane with winds of 132 mph by Wednesday
morning August 30th. John maintained hurricane intensity on September
1st through 200 pm PDT Saturday, September 2nd when
it was downgraded
to a tropical storm as the storm began interacting with the southern
tip of Baja California. |
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Meanwhile an upper level trough was approaching
the western United States. Strong southwesterly winds in the middle
and upper portions of the atmosphere ahead of the upper level trough
began transporting abundant moisture from the Baja into the Southwest
United States. The enhanced plume of tropical moisture is evident on
the Infrared satellite imagery taken 600 PM MDT Sunday, September 3rd.
Deep moisture can be seen extending from the southern tip of Baja California
northeastward into the OK/TX panhandles. The plume of tropical moisture
began affecting the southern half of New Mexico on September 1st and
continued through early on the 4th. The most significant precipitation
from this event fell over the southern third of New Mexico. The
table summarizes the preliminary storm total rainfall from across our
region for the period from September 1-4, 2006. |
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|
Location |
Storm Total (Inches) |
Comment |
Reporting Period |
Ruidoso |
5.25 |
Public Report |
6pm Fri - 6pm Mon |
Ruidoso |
4.40 |
COOP Station |
4pm Fri - 4pm Mon |
Tatum |
3.90 |
COOP Station |
6am Sat - 6am Tue |
Roswell North |
3.10 |
COOP Station |
7am Fri - 7am Tue |
Las Cruces |
3.09 |
NMSU |
7am Sat - 7am Tue |
Alamogordo |
3.08 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Mon |
Roswell |
3.06 |
Airport |
6pm Sat - 6pm Mon |
Cloudcroft |
2.97 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Tue |
Columbus |
2.59 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Mon |
Elk |
2.44 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Mon |
Faywood |
1.45 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Mon |
Deming |
1.45 |
Airport |
6pm Sat - 10am Mon |
Deming |
1.26 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Tue |
Clovis |
0.97 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 8am Mon |
Melrose |
0.72 |
COOP Station |
6pm Sat - 6pm Mon |
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Several days of moderate to heavy
rainfall over Lincoln and Chaves counties prompted many arroyo and small
stream flood advisories. Rain was reported on nearly every hourly observation
at Roswell for two consecutive days. However, the heaviest rainfall occurred
over the Sacramento Mountains where weeks of showers and thunderstorms
led to more flooding from Mescalero and Bonito Lakes. Evacuations
were reported along the Rio Ruidoso and Carrizo Creeks as water topped
the spillways. |
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The remnants of Hurricane John
continued to add to the already unprecedented summer wet season across
the state of New Mexico. For the period from June 1st through September
9th, 21.85 inches of precipitation has been reported Ruidoso. This ranks
as the wettest summer on record since records began in 1941. It is the
third
wettest year so far on record with 23.84 inches. The wettest January
1st through September 9th period was 28.45 inches in 1965. |