National Weather Service Forecast Office

Selected Severe
Weather Events
in Far West Texas and Southern New Mexico

10/12/1957: An F3 tornado moved through Grant County Airport near Silver City ($250,000 damage in 1957 dollars).
07/31/1979: A long lived supercell spawned tornadoes from near Silver City to Anthony, NM (F1 --- $50,000).
05/31/1986: A supercell left a narrow swath of damage from a tornado and 2 inch diameter hail in southwest El Paso.
05/21/1991: An extensive hailstorm affected numerous auto dealerships in east El Paso ($7 million in damage).
06/21/1992: Four tornadoes (three F1s and one F0) struck the Horizon City area into Hudspeth County ($1.5 - $2 million).
08/04/1998: A downburst with a peak gust of 112 mph swept southward across White Sands Missile Range.
05/24/1999: Tennis ball size hail fell just west of Tularosa, while golf ball size hail descended on southeast Las Cruces.
07/26/1999: An 80 mph microburst caused structural damage and knocked down numerous power poles in Lordsburg.
09/11/2002: A Silver City hailstorm shattered windshields and damaged roofs with golf ball size hail (> $1 million damage).
04/03/2004: 13 inches accumulation of hail in Chaparral --- most hail stones were golf ball size or larger ($2 million damage)
08/07/2004: An 80 mph microburst knocked out power to Dell City, while more than 3" rain/hour flooded all area roads.
09/13/2006: A tornadic supercell brought wind driven golf ball size hail to Las Cruces ($10 million damage).
05/08/2007: 3 supercells resulted in hail damage to roofs & autos from golf ball size hail in east El Paso ($4 million damage).
09/28/2007: Golf ball size hail driven by 60-70 mph winds ravaged west El Paso ($8 million damage).