Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Heavy rains flood Roosevelt County

It's 'monsoon season' across eastern New Mexico

DORA — Some sudden and intense showers put the work into Labor Day for those with cattle and crops in southern Roosevelt County, flooding roads and washing out fences.

Amanda Belcher said she knew something big was coming when she saw the massive dark clouds above her early Monday afternoon while she was checking a fence at her property off of State Road 235, just north of Dora. She estimated 2.5 inches of rain dropped at that spot in half an hour, a meteorological event the likes of which she hadn't seen in her 10 years there and her husband hadn't seen there his entire life.

The two farm and ranch there, where their wheat field went underwater (and may need to be resown) and a few cattle escaped past a washed-away fence.

"It's just a small piece of highway under water now but at first it was a good half mile under water," she said in a message to The News. "It washed our grass away ... the ground is bare. Just mud."

Belcher said the storm put several fields underwater, proceeding down SR 235 into Texas and submerging "every low spot and crossroad" along the way. She and her husband put on their rubber boots and set about putting the fence back up and wrangling in the loose yearling bovines.

Her experience was spot-on with what those in Albuquerque's National Weather Service office said was "kind of common during the monsoon season," though the precise locations impacted may vary.

"It didn't occur over the entire (Roosevelt) county, it kind of started around or just a little to the west of Dora and then it just kind of blew up after that and moved to the northeast, east," said NWS technician Troy Marshall. "It probably produced anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of precipitation (on average)."

Radar identified another thunderstorm brewing Monday evening in Elida and also heading eastward, Marshall added. In fact, early Monday morning the NWS office issued a hazardous weather outlook through Sunday for flash and minor flooding from showers and thunderstorms in north and central New Mexico, including Curry, Roosevelt and Quay counties.

Locally, the seven-day forecast centered at Clovis and Cannon Air Force Base calls for a decreased likelihood of those showers and storms as the week advances, with mostly sunny skies and high temperatures in the 80s on Saturday and Sunday.

"It's all part of the monsoon season," said NWS Meteorologist Randall Hergert. "On average it runs to the end of September."

As averages go, Hergert said current metrics "favor" precipitation and temperatures higher than normal in the coming months - but as to what extent, it was too soon to say.

"There's a 60 percent chance of El Niño beginning in fall and 70 percent in winter, and that kind of pattern would favor above-normal temperatures," he explained. "Here in New Mexico particularly, (El Niño) increases the chances of above-average participation."

Compared to La Niña last year, the seasonal pattern change of El Niño refers to above-normal sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. It's generally associated with wetter than normal conditions starting in winter in the southern part of the continental U.S., and the reverse in the Pacific northwest and parts of the midwest, according to the NWS website.

That doesn't mean there won't still be dry spells, Hergert added, since El Niño is only part of "a whole very complex system with different cogs."

Albuquerque recorded its second warmest year on record so far, but figures have been pretty average for Clovis and Portales in the past eight months, according to NWS data.

To put that in perspective, historic average high temperatures near Clovis for the last four months of the year are, in degrees: 94, 87, 77 and 70. They bottom at 69 degrees in January and climb back up to 74 degrees in February.

The historic average monthly precipitation in Clovis is 1.94 inches in September and 1.68 inches in October; they plummet to half an inch or less for the next three months, then begin increasing again in February with 0.39 inches.

As you keep an eye to the clouds in the coming months, give a gander to the ground every so often as well: it's mating season now for tarantulas, which will be out in numbers looking for the right burrow.

According to the Hillcrest Park Zoo's reptile authority, it's also a busy time for reptiles.

"Snakes will be out because rattlesnakes are giving birth right now and the rain always brings snakes out, as long as it's a warm day," said Cody Machen.