NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A storm will bring widespread winter weather back to New Mexico Friday and Saturday. Heavy snow is likely in the northern mountains and parts of eastern New Mexico.
It’s been another cool day across New Mexico with high temperatures a couple of degrees warmer than Wednesday, but still well below average. A few spotty rain and snow showers have been moving through northwest New Mexico, but any accumulations have been very light. There has been some rain making it to the ground in eastern New Mexico, especially around Clovis, where around a quarter of an inch of rain fell early this morning. Spotty rain showers have been moving through much of eastern New Mexico this afternoon.
Overnight, widespread rain showers will develop across eastern New Mexico. This rain will stick around through Friday afternoon and evening, with a few thunderstorms possible. By Friday afternoon, isolated showers and thunderstorms along with mountain snow will develop in northern, western, and central New Mexico as well.
The forecast gets a lot more interesting as a strong cold front moves into northern New Mexico late Friday. This front will surge south across New Mexico through early Saturday morning. The front will cause snow to develop along and behind it, bringing snow levels all the way down to lower elevations. Snow will spread southward in the early morning hours Saturday, reaching Albuquerque before sunrise, and even bringing snow to southeast New Mexico by the mid-morning hours. Snow showers will stick around eastern New Mexico nearly all day Saturday before the storm clears out Saturday night.
This storm system could bring significant snowfall amounts to northeast and east-central New Mexico, along with the northern mountains, late Friday night through Saturday morning. Over 6″ of snow will be possible in these areas, with up to 18″ in the northern mountains. Winds behind the cold front could cause blowing snow as well, significantly impacting travel along I-40 and I-25 in these parts of the state. Even a couple of inches of snow will be possible down to Roswell and the Texas state line.
The storm clears out Saturday night, but roads could still be impacted from the snow in east-central and northeastern New Mexico through Sunday morning. A warming trend starts Sunday afternoon. Highs will be back up to around average on Monday. Then some of the warmest weather so far this year is on the way by the middle of next week.