Dunken, New Mexico

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Southwest Chaves census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88250. The Survey maps it on the Dunken quadrangle.

Dunken within Chaves County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1954 USGS Carlsbad quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Carlsbad quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1962 USGS Dunken quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
1979 USGS Alamogordo quadrangle1:100000
1989 USGS Dunken quadrangle1:24000

Fires near this place

12 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Dunken between 1994 and 2016, burning about 2,641 acres in total. 6 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Smoking	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
13 September 2015	Natural	133 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	WOODRUF
7 August 2011	Natural	550 acres	Carlsbad Field Office	CUEVO CANYON
2 July 1994	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	100 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	ELK
1 July 2011	Natural	3.0 acres	Lincoln National Forest	ROBERTSON
25 June 2015	Natural	under an acre	Roswell Field Office	PICACHO
12 June 2016	Natural	3.0 acres	Carlsbad Field Office	BIG CHERRY
9 May 2005	Smoking	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	STATE RD 132
7 May 1997	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1,200 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	CUEVO

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Chaves County

Storms near this place

27 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dunken in 27 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 15 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2021	Flood	Dunken	$150,000	Heavy rain with estimated totals of 3 to 6 inches over three consecutive days resulted in flooding along the normally dry Rio Penasco in southwest Chaves County. A river gage north of Dunken peaked at 9.89 feet around midnight August 14th. The gage initially indicated that water receded during the overnight hours, but with thunderstorms developing again early in the day, the gage rose to 11.08 feet by mid-morning. Heavy rain continued across the area throughout the day which resulted in prolonged flooding along the Rio Penasco. At its peak, the Rio Penasco, which is normally about 6 feet wide, was estimated to be 50 to 100 yards wide. The river gage north of Dunken peaked at a depth of 16.8 feet early in the afternoon while another river gage east-northeast of Dunken peaked at 14 feet by mid-afternoon. Numerous roadways, including New Mexico State Highway 24 and U.S. Highway 82, were closed as water levels rose to an estimated 5 to 15 feet. Along U.S. Highway 82, fences were reported to be washed away, and a campground was under several feet of water. The amount of damage is unknown, and damage amounts are a rough estimate.
September 2014	Flash Flood	Dunken	$20,000	Portions of NM 24 were washed out between mile markers 46 and 48 north of Dunken. The road had to be closed.
May 1999	Hail	Dunken	$5,000	Large hail broke windshields on Highway 82 in southwest Chaves County.
June 2007	Hail	Dunken	$2,000	Hail broke windshields of several cars on U.S. Highway 82.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunken	-	A mesonet at Dunken measured a wind gust of 68 mph from nearby thunderstorms.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunken	-	The Dunken mesonet station observed a peak wind gust of 65 mph from a severe thunderstorm.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunken	-	A thunderstorm outflow gust reached 60 mph at the Dunken RAWS station. Timing is estimated based on radar rather than the 1 hour reporting time on the RAWS.
August 2024	Flood	Dunken	-	A trained spotter shared video of flood waters within the normally dry Rio Penasco well outside of banks overtopping a low water crossing. These flood waters were a response to an estimated three to six inches of rainfall over the prior two days over the nearby Sacramento Mountains.
June 2022	Hail	Dunken	-	A storm chaser reported quarter size hail from a severe thunderstorm along U.S. Highway 82 near Dunken.
June 2022	Hail	Dunken	-	An off-duty NWS employee reported penny size hail along U.S. Highway 82 near Dunken.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunken	-	A thunderstorm wind gust of 59 mph was recorded near Dunken.
June 2019	Hail	Dunken	-	Nickel size hail several miles northeast of Dunken.
June 2019	Hail	Dunken	-	Hail up to the size of half dollars covered U.S. 82.
June 2019	Hail	Dunken	-	Hail up to the size of ping pong balls fell several miles northeast of Dunken.
June 2019	Hail	Dunken	-	Hail up to two inches in diameter fell a few miles north of Dunken.
October 2017	Flash Flood	Dunken	-	Torrential rainfall for several hours over the Sacramento Mountains produced a flash flood wave on the Rio Penasco. The river rose nearly 10 feet in one hour then crested at 17.46 feet several hours later. Nearby roads were inundated with flood waters along state highway 24 and U.S. Highway 82.
September 2016	Funnel Cloud	Dunken	-	Funnel cloud reported by local media along U.S. Highway 82 and Picacho Road.
June 2015	Funnel Cloud	Dunken	-	Funnel cloud spotted just west of the intersection of State Road 13 and U.S. Highway 82.
October 2015	Hail	Dunken	-	Pea to quarter size hail along US Highway 82 that covered a 4 mile stretch of highway with 1 inch deep of hail.
May 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunken	-	Dunken.
May 2013	Hail	Dunken	-	Golf ball size hail reported near intersection of highway 82 and state road 13.
May 2012	Hail	Dunken	-	Quarter size hail reported 6 miles north northwest of Dunken.
May 2012	Hail	Dunken	-	Golf ball size hail reported 18 miles northeast of Dunken.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunken	-	High winds and heavy rain stripping leaves and limbs from trees in Dunken.
June 1995	Hail	Dunken	-	Marble-size hail accumulated to eight inches deep.
May 2007	Hail	Dunken	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Dunken	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chaves County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Elk	11.4 miles	9
Center Mill	39.1 miles	10
Diamante Mill	40.5 miles	10
River Mill	40.8 miles	10
Missouri Plaza (historical)	41.7 miles	8
Highway Mill	42.5 miles	10
Blackdom (historical)	44.0 miles	8
Lake Arthur	46.1 miles	9

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikidata item Q122596621

The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 897359. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.