Amount of wind in NM in spring (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: live in, agriculture)

[highdesertmutz]

dear fickle, in new mexico, you're going to find out that the favorite handy man's secret weapon against wind is a big rockor duct tapethis one ought to work! if you have a poodle or chihuahua, you might want to try tying a brick around it's neck or collar so it doesn't become airborne.

Originally Posted by Fickle

We just moved to Clovis/Portales NM

I have NEVER lived in an area that is just so fricken windy.
We are told, by the locals, that its not windy... Spring is when its windy. Tell that to my patio furniture thats blown all over my yard. haha

Santa brought a Tampoline with a saftey net for the kids this year... we have it tied down with stakes and lots of rope/chain.

Any other tips for making sure your stuff doesnt just... blow away?


(This wind is FRICKEN NUTZ.. and for the 1st time in my life, I am NOT looking forward to Spring time)

[mrgoodwx]

Originally Posted by Fickle

We just moved to Clovis/Portales NM

I have NEVER lived in an area that is just so fricken windy.
We are told, by the locals, that its not windy... Spring is when its windy. Tell that to my patio furniture thats blown all over my yard. haha

Santa brought a Tampoline with a saftey net for the kids this year... we have it tied down with stakes and lots of rope/chain.

Any other tips for making sure your stuff doesnt just... blow away?


(This wind is FRICKEN NUTZ.. and for the 1st time in my life, I am NOT looking forward to Spring time)

Your story reminded me of something. Right after we first moved into our house in the Albuquerque Foothills 20 years ago, our son got a tent for his 4th birthday. It was about 8 by 8 feet and had a floor. We helped him put it in the back yard, and even used the dainty little stakes that came with it. The first night, we had a downslope wind storm that had peak gusts of about 75 miles per hour. The tent got up and left, and we never saw it again.

[highdesertmutz]

doo doo happens in new mexico when the winds blow. I'm just wondering which neighboring state sucks so much to make our winds soo powerful?

[lisdol]

Originally Posted by Fickle

We just moved to Clovis/Portales NM

I have NEVER lived in an area that is just so fricken windy.
We are told, by the locals, that its not windy... Spring is when its windy. Tell that to my patio furniture thats blown all over my yard. haha

Santa brought a Tampoline with a saftey net for the kids this year... we have it tied down with stakes and lots of rope/chain.

Any other tips for making sure your stuff doesnt just... blow away?


(This wind is FRICKEN NUTZ.. and for the 1st time in my life, I am NOT looking forward to Spring time)

You might want to investigate digging down into the ground a bit and anchoring it with concrete. Or sink the current anchoring system into concrete.

[lisdol]

It can get windy out here in Edgewood. I am in the flat part. I can look east from my home for miles and miles and miles and miles.....

One bedroom has a door that leads out to the patio and it was closed, but not 100% set in, one summer day that we had high winds (50-60 gusts). I opened the door to the room that afternoon and everything was covered in brown dirt. Our neighbors have a yard that is almost entirely a horse corral. Which means it is almost entirely dirt. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, guess what?

My dh thinks it might even be as windy as Keflavik, Iceland, here. I disagree. I have yet to hear of anyone having their car door bent back because they failed to hold onto it. Or rolling dumpsters. One day the wind gusted so strongly that it took down a flagpole. We do have to chase our patio furniture around. But, in Iceland we never even put it out for fear of killing someone.

[hopeful transplant]

When DH applied for this job, they told him the wind hardly ever blows. Well, I'd like some of what ever they're on, because it hasn't stopped blowing yet. We moved here on Labor Day weekend and I can honestly say there may have been about 2 days that it hasn't been windy. Sometimes it gets up to about 50mph and to me that's a hard wind. It really sucks when it's cold too, my favorite outdoor accessory of late is a pair of earmuffs. My little Pom sometimes has a hard time standing still in the field to do what she needs to do. I hear that spring is windy season, woohooo.....I can't wait

[Sarahsez]

Sing with me folks :

I'm from the land of dusty roads
Rattlesnakes and horny toads
It never rains
It never snows
But the wind it always blows.
New Mexico I love you so
I love you so, New Mexico
I'm from the land of dusty roads
Rattlesnakes and horny toads.


The winds take some getting used to. You learn to take cover when that wall cloud of dust starts rolling towards you.

Another oddity is those sky high dust devils . We had one come through our yard. It picked up our full size family tent and put it right side up in a neighbor's yard four houses down.

[PA Escapee]

Thank you so much for your post, I really had no idea that winds of this extreme force blow dirt around all Spring........ I want to get away from 6 months of snow & ice creating hazardous driving conditions in the PA Snowbelt - but it sounds like I will be trading blowing white-outs for brown-outs... Not good.

I am considering moving to either T or C or Deming - & I will very likely sell my high profile "Ford WindStar" mini van that blows around on highways in 20mph+ winds as though The Angry Hand of Zeus wants to take control & show me who's Boss...

What types of vehicles handle best in this type of climate? What sort of tires work best? I once owned a low-rider Honda CRX deuce coup with manual steering that sadly became Bambi On Ice on ice-covered roadways (may it rest in peace...) - but it seemed unphased by 30mph winds... No idea how it would have handled 50 mph winds. Should I maybe get something similar in NM? What do paranoid drivers seem to prefer to drive in NM, when it comes to safety? Please share thoughts.

Now I know why there are so few buildings & houses above 1 story in T or C & Deming... o_O

I am 5'1", if I suddenly wake up in the Texas Panhandle, I will know what happened...

Jesus help my 13lb. cat, if he ever sneaks out the door.

-PA Escapee

Originally Posted by mrgoodwx

Unfortunately, the wind climatology of New Mexico is lacking for much of the state. In spite of that, there are a number of ways of looking at wind. Here are a few of them.

1. Average wind speeds: Highest average speeds are in the eastern plains of New Mexico, especially the northeast, where average speeds are around 15 mph during the months of March, April and May. Averages may not mean much to most people, but those high averages also correlate well with locations in which the wind just seems to never cease...and that can be irritating to some people.

2. Number of calm days: These are highest in valleys, especially when cold air gets trapped and pools in the valley. Calm days are quite rare in the Plains. In the weather business, we had a standing joke that when the wind went calm at Clayton, all hell was about to break loose.

3. Extremely windy days...say gusts of 50 mph or more: Mean position of the jet stream would favor northern New Mexico, while less surface friction would favor southern New Mexico. All together, there isn't a lot of difference in the number of days per year from north to south. From March through May, generally, there will be 5-10 days in which gusts reach above 50 mph in New Mexico. The spring winds tend to peak during the mid-late afternoon hours, and on the worst days, gusts will top 70 or even 80 mph in some locations.

4. Severe downslope wind storms: Under the right conditions having to do with sinking air and angles between the air flow at mountain top and the shape of the mountain and orientation of mountain range, severe downslope wind storms develop in New Mexico. They can be quite localized, but not always. In Albuquerque, these come over the Sandia Mountains from the east, and can reach speeds above 70 mph, especially in the foothill region of the city. A gust to 124 mph was measured at the base of the Tram in 1987. It's likely an event in December 1943 peaked at 125-150 mph, but no one was living in the foothills area of the city. If some cowboy happened to be camping there for some reason, he probably had a very miserable time, then spent the rest of his days telling his story to disbelieving people. Outside of Albuquerque, these events can happen anywhere conditions are right, especially adjacent to the downwind side of a mountain. Some happen in remote areas and are localized so that no one knows they have occurred until someone notices hundreds (or more) of trees have been blown down. I recall a case like that north of Las Vegas (near Rociada) about 15 years ago where winds from the west must have certainly peaked above 100 mph, and other cases near Bonito Lake up against the Sacramento Mountains.

Blowing Dust Days: As one would expect, a lot depends on the landscape just upwind from you. In Albuquerque, spring winds can produce very nasty conditions, especially on the West Mesa. On the eastern edge of the city, there is enough covered ground between you and the West Mesa to keep dust to a lower amount, but it can still get nasty as you watch little pieces of New Mexico and Arizona flying by overhead. In general, the greatest number of "blowing dust days" tend to be over southern New Mexico because of the amount of dust and sand that is naturally in that region. Still, blowing dust can be carried aloft for miles and miles between being deposited. I believe it was the spring of 1977 when scientists first tracked a cloud of dust that originated in the Southwest U.S. as it remained recognizable in satellite photos over the Atlantic Ocean (although that kind of thing is rare).

My guess is that...if one were to do a survey, they would find the spring, windy season the least favorite "weather-wise" time of year across New Mexico...which reminds me...February is just around the corner.

[PA Escapee]

They don't tell you...on town websites such as this...exactly what the winds really must be like in the area. Judging by this data, you'd never know about high speed winds that reportedly blow almost every day, all spring long.

City Statistics and Data

I guess the operative keyword in the table header "Normal Climate Around Truth or Consequences, New Mexico" is the word "normal"...

Or perhaps there was a mix up, & their keyboard was ripped out of the USB port & blew away east before they could edit it.

Scary stuff.

-PA Escapee

Originally Posted by highdesertmutz

dear fickle, in new mexico, you're going to find out that the favorite handy man's secret weapon against wind is a big rockor duct tapethis one ought to work! if you have a poodle or chihuahua, you might want to try tying a brick around it's neck or collar so it doesn't become airborne.

[debbie at bouontiful]

What about Norther New Mexico, like Chama area, is that windy? Mountain I wouldn't think so but out on the high desert, which most of that area is, I would imagine. Anyone know if that is a windy area. Now, I've lived in Ill., and can tell you about wind............