Las Cruces

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Doña Ana County, the county that contains Las Cruces.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

The drought index is for Doña Ana County, the county that contains Las Cruces.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Landslides mapped in Doña Ana County.

Mapped by USGS Conterminous (145).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Sep 13, 2006Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A heavy precipitation supercell thunderstorm tracked from far eastern Luna County eastward along Interstate 10 through Las Cruces. This storm dropped golf ball size hail throughout most of its lifetime, resulting in a 4 car collision on Interstate 10 in far eastern Luna County, and hundreds of damaged roofs and automobiles and destroyed skylights in Mesilla and south Las Cruces. The US Border Patrol Checkpoint was evacuated. Wind damage from a possible tornado occurred at the state fairgrounds west of Las Cruces (mainly to outbuildings and trees), while a tornado was sighted briefly just west of Mesilla. This was the costliest hail storm in the history of the NWS El Paso county…

2. Aug 15, 2006Flash Flood$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Runoff from heavy rains over the nearby Sierra De Las Uvas Mountains caused the Placitas Arroyo to breach, which sent a wall of water into the town of Hatch. Up to 4 feet of water entered business and residences. Mandatory evacuations of several hundred residents took place, including 150 people from an apartment complex which eventually had to be condemned. All roads into and within Hatch were closed.

3. Jun 7, 1997Hail$3.5 million
4. Aug 1, 2006Flash Flood$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A cluster of slow moving thunderstorms dropped 1.5 to 3 inches of rain over the southern portion of Dona Ana County, especially near the Rio Grande. Even higher amounts fell over the nearby Franklin Mountains which added to severe runoff problems. Interstate 10 south of Las Cruces was closed for several hours. Hardest hit with damage to roads and structures was Sunland Park, followed by Anthony, Chaparral and La Union. About 1200 residents in Sunland Park were forced to evacuate as the Rio Grande River reached a stage of 9.3 feet, the highest in 50 years. This was one of many flood events during the summer that led to much of New Mexico being declared a federal disaster area.

5. Apr 3, 2004Hail$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell thunderstorm formed just north of northeast El Paso and tracked northward across Chaparral and along the east slopes of the Organ Mountains. Along the way it dropped a large amount of golf ball size hail (with a few hailstones reaching hens egg size) on the town of Chaparral, resulting in extensive damage to mobile home skirting, windows and a few roofs. The hail was driven by 60 mph wind gusts. The hail depth was measured at 13 inches, and hailstones were still 1.25 inches in diameter more than 4 hours after the event.

6. Jun 3, 2004Hail$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A merger of two severe thunderstorms resulted in a right-moving supercell affecting an area mainly west and north of Las Cruces, producing damaging winds and hail as large as golf balls. Hardest hit was the Las Cruces Airport, where a wind gust was measured at 62 mph and a tower was knocked down. Golf ball size hail caused extensive damage to some of the aircraft, especially helicopters owned by Southwest Air Ambulance. There was damage to the runway lighting system, and Southwest Aviation had roof damage. Numerous windows and windshields were shattered at a nearby prison facility. Prior to the merger, the northern cell dropped 3 inches of rain near Radium Springs, but only minor…

7. Sep 6, 2005Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Major flooding occurred across most of the Las Cruces area as a thunderstorm complex dropped heavy rain during a 3 hour time frame. Rainfall reports were widespread 2 to 3 inches with isolated amounts around 4 inches. All major roads were flooded with a few intersections under 4 feet of water. Sandbags were put up until resources were exhausted. The rainfall amounts were not extremely unusual, just the areal coverage.

8. Aug 12, 2021Flash Flood$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water topped an earthen dam and resulted in flooding across much of La Union. Several cars were washed off the road and some houses were inaccessible for awile. Several inches of standing water also resulted across the area due to the heavy rain. This was all the result of almost 2 inches of rain in about an hour.

9. Apr 26, 2022Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail up to golf ball size fell in Santa Teresa up toward La Union. Several houses around the intersection of McNutt and the Dominici Highway sustained destroyed roofs and numerous vehicles had significant hail damage including at the local NWS office.

10. Jun 29, 2004Flash Flood$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Thunderstorms repeatedly moved over southern and central Dona Ana County, dropping more than 3 inches of rain between Las Cruces and northeast El Paso. Though most areas experienced nuisance flooding, the town of Vado, which lies in a somewhat sunken basin, received the run-off from most of the surrounding area. As a result, 14 houses had to be evacuated. Most of the town was under 2 to 3 feet of water, with a few spots under 6 feet. Governor Richardson later declared Vado a disaster area.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

110°FJun 28, 1994

All-time low

−5°FFeb 3, 2011

Warmest night

80°FJul 30, 2023

Coldest day

18°FJan 11, 1962

Wettest day

3.34 inJul 26, 2010

Snowiest day

9.0 in2 times, most recently Jan 13, 1985

Hottest year

2025mean 65.4°F

Coldest year

1975mean 59.5°F

Wettest year

197814.83 in

Driest year

19703.44 in

Snowiest season

16.3 in1984-85

Station State University (USC00298535), 3,886 ft elevation, 3.5 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1959 to October 28, 2026; 97.6% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Doña Ana County.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00298535.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.