Tornado touches down near county

Another round of severe weather will move into Eastern New Mexico later today with the potential for damaging winds, hail up to 2 inches and the possibility of an isolated tornado, according to the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

Chuck Jones, NWS meteorologist, said there are severe weather warnings in effect for Central New Mexico; this storm system is forecast to continue to develop east into the Quay County area. He said today's severe weather could produce isolated tornadoes like the two reported yesterday to the NWS.

Jones said at 7:45 p.m. Monday, a brief tornado touchdown was reported 16 miles southwest of Tucumcari on County Road 43 near Quay. He said the tornado was on the ground for a short period of time but no additional information about the touchdown is available. The storm that produced this tornado also had reports of golfball-size hail and high wind gust, Jones added.

He said another tornado was reported on the ground 6:15 p.m.-6:30 p.m., six miles northeast of Roy in Harding County. He said a large storm system pulled up deep moisture from the surface from northern Baja, California, and the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in the outbreak of severe thunderstorms yesterday across Eastern New Mexico.

Strong storm systems will begin to develop in Quay, Curry and Roosevelt counties as the evening progresses, the systems will take longer to build after yesterday's activity, said Jones.