Confirmed Tornado Moves Toward Deming as Hail Pounds Luna County and Damages Roofs and Cars

A confirmed tornado touched down west of Deming on Monday evening and moved east toward the city, the National Weather Service in El Paso said, as a severe thunderstorm dropped hail large enough to shatter skylights and dent vehicles across Luna County in southwestern New Mexico.

The weather service issued a tornado warning for central Luna County at 5:50 p.m. MDT after emergency management officials confirmed a tornado on the ground about eight miles west of Deming. The tornado was moving east at about 25 miles per hour, which put Deming directly in its path. At 6:02 p.m., the weather service updated the warning and reported the confirmed tornado near Deming, still moving east. The warning expired at 6:15 p.m. The warning text said the storm could throw flying debris, damage buildings and vehicles, bring down trees and damage or destroy mobile homes.

Hail did much of the damage

The storm had been building through the afternoon. The weather service issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 4:27 p.m. MDT for south central Grant County, then another at 4:56 p.m. for Grant and Luna counties, with a storm located 10 miles west of Gage moving east at 25 miles per hour. That warning listed two inch hail and 60 mile per hour wind gusts, and it covered Interstate 10 between mile markers 48 and 72. A separate severe thunderstorm warning during the tornado warning raised the threat to wind gusts of 70 miles per hour and golf ball size hail.

Deming News reported widespread property damage across the area on Monday night, most of it from the hail that came with the storm. Residents described heavy hail pounding rooftops and striking vehicles. Reports pointed to damaged residential roofs, shattered skylights and damaged automobiles, with the full extent of the destruction still being assessed late Monday.

Flooded and hail covered roads to the west

The same storm system made driving dangerous west of Deming. The New Mexico Department of Transportation reported difficult driving conditions on Interstate 10 between Separ and Gage, from mile marker 42 to mile marker 63, where golf ball to baseball size hail covered the roadway and drivers were urged to use caution. Further west, flooding closed roads near Animas. State Road 9 was impassable in both directions from mile marker 1.5 to mile marker 13 with water running over the road, and State Road 80 was impassable from mile marker 4 to mile marker 7, where water and downed power lines blocked the road.

A rating is still to come

By late Monday, the weather service had not rated the tornado, and its final path and intensity had not been established. A storm survey in the coming days may map where the tornado traveled and how strong it was. Tornado warnings are uncommon for the Deming area, and the storm arrived in October, outside the traditional spring and summer severe weather season in New Mexico. Deming News advised property owners to photograph damage before making permanent repairs, to keep receipts for emergency work, and to take care around broken glass and loose roofing when checking roofs and skylights.