Monday, January 28, 2008 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM
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Baby, let's rock
Even now in the early afternoon the dunes across the basin at White Sands are on the move. Let the good times roll.
2 products issued by NWS for: 10 Miles SSW Holloman Air Force Base NM
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EL PASO TX/SANTA TERESA NM 513 AM MST MON JAN 28 2008 ...HIGH WINDS ACROSS SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO AND WESTERN TEXAS TODAY... .A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS TODAY CAUSING HIGH WINDS ACROSS THE REGION. DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING WEST WINDS WILL BECOME SUSTAINED AROUND 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH ACROSS THE LOWLANDS. ABOVE 8000 FEET WINDS MAY INCREASE TO AROUND 40 MPH WITH GUSTS NEAR 60 MPH BY LATE AFTERNOON. THE WINDS WILL CAUSE HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS...ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. BLOWING DUST AND SAND MAY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO UNDER A MILE IN A FEW LOCATIONS. NMZ022>024-030>032-TXZ055-056-282015- /O.EXT.KEPZ.WI.Y.0002.080128T1800Z-080129T0400Z/ SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS/LOWER GILA REGION-SIERRA COUNTY LAKES REGION- TULAROSA BASIN/SOUTHERN DESERT-SOUTHWEST DESERT/BOOTHEEL- SOUTHWEST DESERT/MIMBRES BASIN-SOUTHERN DESERT-EL PASO-HUDSPETH- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...SILVER CITY...TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES... ALAMOGORDO...LORDSBURG...DEMING...LAS CRUCES...EL PASO... SIERRA BLANCA...DELL CITY 513 AM MST MON JAN 28 2008 ...WIND ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 9 PM MST THIS EVENING... A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS TODAY CAUSING HIGH WINDS ACROSS THE REGION. DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING WEST WINDS WILL BECOME SUSTAINED AROUND 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH. THE WINDS WILL CAUSE HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS...ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. BLOWING DUST AND SAND MAY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO UNDER A MILE IN A FEW LOCATIONS...ESPECIALLY ALONG INTERSTATE 10 BETWEEN EL PASO AND LAS CRUCES AND ALSO IN THE DEMING AND LORDSBURG VICINITY. A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WINDS OF 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT...ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. USE EXTRA CAUTION. $$
Hazardous Weather Outlook
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EL PASO TX/SANTA TERESA NM 553 AM MST MON JAN 28 2008 NMZ022>025-030>032-TXZ055-056-291300- SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS/LOWER GILA REGION-SIERRA COUNTY LAKES REGION- TULAROSA BASIN/SOUTHERN DESERT-SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS- SOUTHWEST DESERT/BOOTHEEL-SOUTHWEST DESERT/MIMBRES BASIN- SOUTHERN DESERT-EL PASO-HUDSPETH- 553 AM MST MON JAN 28 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL NEW MEXICO...SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO AND SOUTHWEST TEXAS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT STRONG SURFACE WINDS WILL DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS THE AREA. WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE LOW LANDS OF THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON. WINDS WILL BE STRONGER IN THE SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS WITH 35 TO 45 MPH WINDS WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 60 MPH POSSIBLE. THE WINDS WILL BE VERY SLOW TO WEAKEN DURING THE EVENING HOURS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY BREEZY WINDS WILL RETURN ON WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AND AGAIN ON SUNDAY AS WE CONTINUE TO SEE A PARADE OF UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM MOVE ACROSS NEW MEXICO. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. $$
Night camp
Site 8 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM
- Verizon cell phone service - good signal
- Verizon EVDO service - very good signal and access speed ( I have to qualify this - during my January 2008 visit the signal and access speed was excellent - in January 2009 it was practically non-existent during the day and slow at night with unpredictable short periods of excellent access)
- Go to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park website
- Go to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park on my Nightcamps map
- Check the weather here
Wind on the Gangplank
There was almost no soil in that part of the range - just twelve miles' breadth of rough pink rock. "As you go from Chicago west, soil diminishes in thickness and fertility, and when you get to the gangplank and up here on top of the Laramie Range there is virtually none," Love said. "It's had ten million years to develop, and there's none. Why? Wind - that's why. The wind blows away everything smaller than gravel."
Standing in that wind was like standing in river rapids. It was a wind embellished with gusts, but, over all, it was primordially steady: a consistent southwest wind, which had been blowing that way not just through human history but in every age since the creation of the mountains - a record written clearly in wind - scored rock. Trees were widely scattered up there and, where they existed, appeared to be rooted in the rock itself. Their crowns looked like umbrellas that had been turned inside out and were streaming off the trunks downwind. "Wind erosion has tremendous significance in this part of the Rocky Mountain region," Love said, "Even down in Laramie, the trees are tilted. Old-timers used to say that a Wyoming wind gauge was an anvil on a length of chain. When the land was surveyed, the surveyors couldn't keep their tripods steady. They had to work by night or near sunrise. People went insane because of the wind." His mother, in her 1905 journal, said that Old Hanley, passing by the Twin Creek school, would disrupt lessons by making some excuse to step inside and light his pipe. She also described a man who was evidently losing to the wind his struggle to build a cabin: