Red Flag Warning Issued for Van Horn and Southeast New Mexico
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 17, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A Red Flag Warning is in effect for Van Horn and Highway 54 Corridor, extending to Southeast New Mexico and other areas, due to strong winds and low humidity increasing fire danger.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Red Flag Warning
- Affected area
- Southeast New Mexico and West Texas
- Issued
- April 17, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Midland/Odessa TX
Fire-weather notices describe conditions that can support rapid fire spread; they do not report that a fire is present. Check local emergency sources for any active incident.
Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
Red Flag Warning Alert
Alert Details
The Red Flag Warning was issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Midland/Odessa TX. It is effective starting from April 17, 2026, at 2:01 AM CDT.
Affected Areas
The warning affects Van Horn and Highway 54 Corridor, as well as Southeast New Mexico, the Sacramento Foothills, Guadalupe and Delaware Mountains, Culberson County, and the Northwest Permian Basin.
What You Should Do
Prepare for critical fire weather conditions. Outdoor burning is not recommended, as any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly.
Expected Conditions
Expect west winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph and relative humidity as low as 13 percent, along with high fire danger indicated by an RFTI of 5 or critical.
Timeline
The warning is effective from April 17, 2026, at 2:01 AM CDT, with onset at 12:00 PM CDT, expiring at 2:15 PM CDT, and ending at 9:00 PM CDT on the same day.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (933 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 17, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.