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Severe Weather Strikes the Rio Grande
Valley and Parts of the Eastern Plains April 16-17, 2005 |
| All the ingredients necessary for
severe thunderstorms came together the weekend of April 16th and
17th. A moist southeasterly flow developed in the lower levels
of the atmosphere on Saturday, April 16th and persisted through
Sunday, April 17th. This southeasterly flow transported
Gulf of Mexico moisture into western New Mexico on the 16th,
evidenced by dew point temperatures in the middle and upper 40s as
far west as the Continental Divide. Meanwhile, fast
southwest winds aloft carried a series of upper level disturbances
over the state. The turning of the winds from southeast at the
surface to southwest at the upper levels of the atmosphere created a
very favorable vertical shear profile. As a result, a few of
the more intense thunderstorm updrafts that developed in this
strongly sheared environment, including the one that struck the
Albuquerque Metro Area on Saturday the 16th, began to rotate
and quickly turned severe.
On Saturday, 4/16, severe thunderstorms were mostly
found west of the Central Mountain Chain where the vertical wind
shear was strongest. The photos below are of the severe
thunderstorm that produced a well-defined funnel cloud over
southeast Albuquerque and dropped hail ranging in size from dimes to
quarters
across much of the city. Very heavy rain also accompanied the
storm.
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| Images from April 16th: |
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The severe thunderstorm that struck Albuquerque on
4/16 initially developed over northeast Valencia County shortly
after 2:30 pm and rapidly intensified as it moved slowly
north. The left-most image below is radar reflectivity
at 3:16 pm MDT, about the time when the thunderstorm's hail core was
moving into southeast Bernalillo County. The funnel cloud
appeared to develop well ahead of the hail core and most likely
along the leading edge of the thunderstorm outflow ~10 miles
southeast of the Albuquerque Sunport (denoted as KABQ on the map).
It was between 3:04 pm and 3:10 pm MDT when the funnel cloud peaked
in intensity and briefly touched down. The right-most image is radar reflectivity
at 3:32 pm MDT, about the time that nickel to quarter size hail was
falling at the airport. The middle image is storm-relative
velocity at 3:16 pm MDT. Green colors indicate winds that
are blowing toward the radar, which is located in the upper
left portion of these images. Red colors indicate winds
blowing away from the radar. Note the absence of
red pixels in and near the thunderstorm location, with a
predominantly southeast to northwest wind flow (i.e.
southeasterly). In this case, the radar beam's lowest
elevation angle was ~1700 feet AGL and was overshooting most if not
all of the funnel cloud's rotation. For a more detailed
review of radar and tornadoes, please check out Tornado
Detection Capabilities and Limitations.
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<Click on
images for larger versions> |
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Bernalillo County Tornadoes (since
1959) |
| Tornadoes
are indeed a rare occurrence in the Albuquerque Metro Area.
Since the late 1950s, there have only been 10
reported/confirmed tornadoes in Bernalillo County including
the one on April 16th. The most significant tornado in
recent times occurred on September
20, 1985. |
| June
26, 2004 |
Weak tornado developed along a gust
front over Paradise Hills. ~$3K in damage. |
| May
15, 1991 |
Touchdown on Kirtland AFB
property along foothills of the Manzanos. No
damage. |
| July
14, 1990 |
Severe storm moved NW to SE across
the city. Brief touchdown near University Stadium. |
| June
29, 1987 |
Touchdown on the state fair
grounds. 1 building destroyed. Cinder blocks
tossed 100 feet. |
| April
12, 1987 |
Bosque Farms. Downed trees and
roof damage. Outdoor Basketball hoop was bent over. |
| September
20, 1985 |
Most significant tornado in
recent memory. Touchdown near Winrock Mall. ~100K damage. |
| August
5, 1980 |
Brief touchdown on the West Mesa.
No damage. |
| March
27, 1970 |
Brief touchdown 3 miles south of
Sunport. Minor damage at UNM golf course. |
| May
31, 1965 |
Weak tornado reported near Alameda
and Rio Grande Blvd. Destroyed one building. |
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| Images from April 17th: |
| By Sunday, the strongest shear
(on
the order of 40-45 knots) had shifted farther east across the plains
and in particular Chaves, Eddy and Lea Counties. As a result severe
thunderstorms were most prevalent in the east. One of the
more severe storms
on Sunday, 4/17 affected southern Chaves and parts of Eddy County
(image to right). Another strong thunderstorm over Socorro County
(image below) produced a brief
tornado much like the Albuquerque storm. However, most areas west of
the Rio Grande Valley were significantly less active on Sunday
compared to the day before.
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Photo below was taken by Drew Medlin, about 16
miles north of Socorro along Interstate 25. The radar image to
the lower right shows this same storm about 3 hours later after it
had weakened.
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Photo above was taken by Steven
Johnson near the Eddy-Chaves County line looking southwest toward
Artesia at 4:20 pm MDT. This severe storm continued to move
southeast across Eddy County and eventually dissipated near Texas
state line. |
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weather.gov 
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