It’s no April Fools joke as a storm is bringing snow, rain and high winds across parts of New Mexico today. Warmer weather will return later this week.
A powerful early spring storm system is bringing a mix of everything to the state Monday. Showers and snow move din early this morning and more rain and snow has been moving through the state into this afternoon. Some have seen showers and thunderstorms that have brought accumulating hail. Others have seen heavy snowfall at times. Meanwhile in southern New Mexico, winds have been gusting up to around 60 mph.
The rain and snow showers will begin to taper off and come to an end through this evening. The exception will be northern and northeastern New Mexico where a backdoor cold front will become more organized. This will bring locally heavy snowfall from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains down to the I-25 corridor early tonight, with showers and thunderstorms in northeast New Mexico. Travel may become very difficult through the Raton Pass later tonight. This cold front will draw rain and snow southward through early Tuesday morning. These rain and snow showers will end by 7 AM.
Drier weather starts returning Tuesday, however a few isolated showers and mountain snow showers will return Tuesday afternoon from Albuquerque to southern New Mexico. These will be much lighter and isolated compared to today. Temperatures will be a few degrees warmer, but it will still be cooler than normal. A breezy northerly wind will also impact eastern New Mexico, but die down by Tuesday night.
A big warming trend begins Wednesday as a ridge of high pressure moves towards the state. This will also result in calm conditions. This warming trend will continue through Friday afternoon, as breezy winds return to the state.
Our next storm system moves into New Mexico starting Friday evening. This storm will bring rain and higher elevation snow to western, northern and central New Mexico through Saturday as a strong cold front moves through the state Friday night. Temperatures will be much cooler Saturday afternoon, but winds could gust over 50 mph. This will also bring a high fire danger to the Rio Grande Valley and eastern New Mexico. Quieter weather will return again starting Sunday.
