Winter storm to hit Northern New Mexico later this week

Sean P. Thomas, The Santa Fe New Mexican
·2 min read

Dec. 7—It's not a drought-breaker, but it's something.

A storm headed through the western U.S. likely will bring snow, rainfall and cooler temperatures in Northern New Mexico this week, according to the National Weather Service.

Alyssa Clements, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's office in Albuquerque, said the primary concern for the first half of the week will be heavy winds in the northwest region of the state, with precipitation and snow expected to fall in Santa Fe later in the week.

Clements said those winds — expected to reach as high as 60 mph around New Mexico's central mountain chain — likely will increase throughout the week, tapering off Friday and Saturday.

According to forecasts, there is a little over a 60 percent chance of light snow on Friday in Santa Fe, with more expected to fall at higher elevations. The precipitation will first start out as rain through the first half of the day, changing into snowfall Friday evening.

Winds in Santa Fe are forecast to reach as high as 20 mph Wednesday.

Santa Fe's daytime high is expected to reach 52 degrees Thursday but will drop to 40 degrees Saturday. The nighttime temps will hover around 27 degrees early in the week but are expected to drop to 14 on Friday and 17 on Saturday, Clements said.

Clements said the potential for snow and rain on Thursday and Friday should not be seen as an indicator the drought that has gripped Northern New Mexico is on its way out.

"It has been unusually warm and very dry," Clements said. A report from the weather service said not a single inch of rain fell across New Mexico from Nov. 29 through Dec. 6.

"The storm system we have this week is certainly welcome, but after that it is up in the air in terms of when we will see some beneficial precipitation, unfortunately, with La Niña going on," Clements said.

La Niña is an atmospheric phenomenon that typically results in rainstorms being pushed further north, resulting in a drier-than-normal southwest region.