Windy weather returns to southern and eastern New Mexico Friday afternoon. A storm starts moving into the state Friday, bringing rain and snow chances through Saturday.
It has been a very windy day across New Mexico Thursday with wind gusts as high as nearly 80 mph in parts of the state. The winds have slowly been dying down tonight, but it is still breezy across most of the state. This is great news for firefighters battling the Rio Grande Fire in Bosque Farms. While most areas will see calmer winds overnight, some higher elevation locations will hang onto the higher winds through Friday morning.
Windy weather will return to southern and eastern parts of the state Friday afternoon, with a few wind gusts as high as 50 mph. A storm will start moving into the stat from the northwest as well by Friday afternoon with isolated rain showers and higher elevation snow. This storm will spread more rain and snow east across the state Friday night. As temperatures fall overnight, snow levels will also fall. We could see snow levels as low as 6,500′ along and north of the I-40 corridor before climbing again by late morning. Scattered rain showers will also move through the state, with the best chance for rainfall accumulation in western and northern New Mexico. A couple isolated rain showers will also be possible through the day Saturday in the Albuquerque Metro. 2″ to 8″ of snow will be possible in the northern and western mountains with up to 10″ across the mountain peaks. Some lower elevations may even pick up 1″ to 2″. Temperatures will be much cooler Saturday afternoon as well.
Drier and warmer weather returns in time for Easter Sunday with highs back up to around average for this time of year again. Winds will also be much lighter Sunday afternoon all across the state. Temperatures will continue to warm through the end of next week. Some moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will move up into eastern parts of New Mexico starting Tuesday. This will bring a chance for afternoon thunderstorms to eastern parts of the state each afternoon next week starting Tuesday.