This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

CIMSS Satellite Blog

MENU

Deadly flash flooding in Ruidoso, New Mexico

By Scott Bachmeier •

5-minute GOES-19 Infrared images, from 1901 UTC on 08 July to 0001 UTC on 09 July [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Infrared images displayed using RealEarth (above) showed a series of southward-moving thunderstorms that produced 1.91″ of rainfall near Ruidoso (and 3.29″ over the nearby South Fork Fire burn scar) on 08 July 2025. The resulting flash flooding was responsible for 3 fatalities, and damaged dozens of homes.

The same sequence of 5-minute GOES-19 Infrared images is shown below — including plots of the Flood Advisories and Flash Flood Warnings that were issued during that 5-hour period. A  Flood Watch was issued for the general area at 1805 UTC, and the first Flash Flood Warning for the immediate Ruidoso vicinity was issued at 2012 UTC (which was upgraded to a Flash Flood Emergency at 2047 UTC).

5-minute GOES-19 Infrared images with plots of Flood Advisories (green polygons) and Flash Flood Warnings (red polygons), from 1901 UTC on 08 July to 0001 UTC on 09 July [click to play MP4 animation]

The hazard of heavy rainfall and flash flooding was compounded by enhanced runoff from the South Fork Fire burn scar (that wildfire occurred just west-northwest of Ruidoso about a year earlier, in June 2024) — a Landsat-8 “Natural Color” RGB image about 2 weeks prior this flash flooding event (below) displayed the large South Fork Fire burn scar (lighter shades of reddish-brown), as well as the smaller Salt Fire burn scar to the south-southeast.

30-meter resolution Landsat-8 “Natural Color” RGB image at 1739 UTC on 23 June [click to enlarge]

With much of the rainfall occurring in a relatively short period of time (particularly over the runoff-prone South Fork Fire burn scar), the Rio Ruidoso at Hollywood rapidly rose to 20.24 feet. The Flash Flood Emergency that had been issued at 2047 UTC (2:47 PM local time) — which included Ruidoso, Hollywood, Ruidoso Downs and the Rio Ruidoso as far downstream as Glencoe — was still in effect when the Rio Ruidoso water level began to rise at Hollywood (below).

Graph of Rio Ruidoso river gauge height on 08 July [click to enlarge]

GOES-19 Infrared image at 2201 UTC on 08 July, with plots of Flash Flood Warnings (narrow red polygons) and the Flash Flood Emergency (bold red polygon) that were still in effect at that time; the gray hatched area represents a Flood Advisory [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-19, Heavy rain / flooding, Landsat, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images