Spring storms bring rain, hail to region

Spring storms produced heavy rain, large hail and tornado warnings last week, but the region avoided significant damage beyond battered roofs and vehicles.

Portales city officials asked their residents to conserve water following a sustained power outage Tuesday night, but everything was back on line by week's end.

While Portales water levels fell more than 2 feet during the outage – 25 of 43 wells were out of commission – they were back to 28 feet by Friday morning, "which returns our community to the appropriate tank level for our community's safety," said Interim City Manager T.J. Cathey.

Both Clovis and Portales were under tornado warnings late Wednesday night, but no touchdowns were reported in populated areas.

Hail had the most lasting impact for most, some the size of tennis balls reported at Cannon Air Force Base.

Local insurance adjusters reported an uptick in claims, but nothing like May 24, 2023, when a supercell thunderstorm dropped 3 inches of rain across the region and 80-mph winds tossed tennis-ball sized hail into windows.

Last week's rain totals varied wildly – 4 inches west of Cannon, but less than a half inch in other places. The agricultural science center north of Clovis reported .67 of an inch for Tuesday and Wednesday combined.

This week's forecast calls for 25% chance of rain by midweek, but the headline is heat – upper 90s expected every day with a chance to hit 100 degrees.