My Storm Chase Video - Monday, Oct 2, 2023

Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

Monday at noon mdt thunderstorms begin to develop along the east slopes of the Guadalupe mountains of southeastern New Mexico. A strong thunderstorm quickly blew up as it marched off to the northeast and reached the supercell stage.

One more chance to go storm chasing in a rather dismal year for chasing after coming out of a three year drought. This is my hobby, my playtime, this is what I do for fun. This also marks my 50th year with the National Weather Service Skywarn Program. I started spotting/chasing in Eddy County when I was 15 years old in 1973. This was one of the worst hailstorms I’ve seen locally in all of those years. Not the worst but close.

A New Mexico Department of Transportation driver saw tennis ball size hail on the ground along State Highway 137 (the Queen highway) after the storm has passed. I shot photos and video of hail piled up in drifts a foot deep and was still picking up golf ball sized hail stones some 30-45 minutes after the storm passed. I spotted at least one brief funnel cloud maybe a couple of more.

The hail stripped the mesquite bushes of their leaves and beat the grass out of the ground in places. Broken windshields on vehicles was reported also. Heavy rainfall caused flash flooding in normally dry arroyos, bar ditches, and fields. I’ll upload a video of that in a couple of days.

1” to 4” of rain fell in and around the Carlsbad area. I recorded 2.25” which is the greatest 24-hour rainfall total at our home in Carlsbad in the past 17 years in the month of October.

The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction!

You Want The Truth, You Can’t Handle The Truth!

There Are None So Blind As Those Who "Will - Not" To See!

You Can’t Wake Up - If You Don’t Know That You Are Asleep!