Freak storm witnessed by Deming motorist

By Kevin Buey Headlight Staff
 
     
  Traffic was slowed to a crawl on Interstate 10 Wednesday afternoon when a super cell dumped golf-ball sized hail and rotated wind gusts at 65- to 85-mph. Horizontal rain and hot pavement created a fog bank that made driving extremely hazardous on the road. Reports to the Deming Headlight also indicated a funnel cloud touched dowe between mile marker 115 and 118 heading west on I-10 (John McClue photos)  
 

Dry and warm is the forecast for the weekend, the U.S. National Weather Service reports.

"If we get through tonight without much to-do," NWS Forecaster Tim Brice said Thursday afternoon in Santa Teresa, "we expect buckets of dry air in here."

The chance of rain Thursday night was low, he said, with any precipitation that might visit arriving late at night. Hidalgo and Grant County, he said, still had afternoon thunderstorms Thursday. The forecast was certainly better than the Wednesday afternoon weather seen in Doña Ana County and the further thunderstorms over the region Wednesday night.

A tornado, the NWS reported Wednesday, formed at about 1:30 p.m. on the border of Luna and Doña Ana counties. It moved eastward, causing numerous problems including closure of Interstate 10 until about 5 p.m. Traffic backed into Luna County.

"I've seen pictures of golf ball-sized hail around Las Cruces," said Brice, "readings of 1-inch (of rain) in the Rio Grande Valley. We have received no reports from Luna County. I've yet to see a photo of an actual tornado. The radar said (conditions were) easily capable of producing a tornado. Las Cruces Police Department said it was a tornado.

"What we saw yesterday was the same animal that twirls around the Midwest — a supercell. It's been several years since we had anything of this magnitude."

June, September and October are periods of severe weather here, Brice said, transitioning from dry to moist and moist

 
 
 

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  to dry.

Wednesday saw light rain in Deming in the afternoon, then evening thunder, lightning and heavy rain.

Deming's John McClure was among motorists on eastbound Interstate 10, Wednesday.

"We saw the thunderstorm ahead of us and we drove into it," he said. "The first thing we saw was a bunch of hail covering the ground, like snow. After a quarter of a mile or so, we noticed a car had spun out. There were four cars stopped. Another quarter-mile or less, a truck had jackknifed and taken out a delivery truck. Four other cars were in the median. Then we started to get a lot of rain and hail falling."

Rain and hail ahead reduced visibility to about 50 feet. The cold hail, McClure said, produced fog.

"We got out of it the other side of Akela," said McClure, who said wind rocked his Toyota Land Cruiser.

"I haven't see that intense a thunderstorm in a long time," said McClure, who has lived here since 1979.

State police had another road closure Thursday afternoon, with a fire involving an 18-wheeler on eastbound I-10 at milemarker 109.

Kevin Buey can be reached at kbuey@demingheadlight.com.

     


NOTICE THE PART IN THIS ARTICLE ABOUT GETTING HELP FILLING OUT THE LOAN APPPLICATIONS!



LAS CRUCES — The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency and the New Mexico Office of Emergency Management announced that a Mobile Disaster Recovery Center opened in Hatch on Tuesday.

It is located at Hatch Municipal Building, 133 N. Franklin, Hatch, New Mexico 87937.

The Mobile Disaster Recovery Center is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m, seven days a week. It will provide residents who suffered flood damages in Doña Ana County an opportunity to meet face-to-face with representatives from state, federal and voluntary agencies and receive answers to questions they may have about the recovery process. Customer service representatives from the U.S. Small Business Administration will be on hand to help individuals fill out loan applications and answer questions.

Before visiting the Mobile DRC, individuals should register for assistance by calling (800) 621-3362 or (800) 462-7585 for those who are hearing or speech-impaired. The FEMA application line is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., local time, seven days a week, until further notice. Registration is also available online at www.fema.gov. Those who are unable to register before going to the Disaster Recovery Center may do so when they visit.

FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.

     

by the german air force holloman afb nm -- human experimentation...since 911...