Showers and storms will bring rain to eastern New Mexico starting tonight through Saturday night. Windier weather through the weekend will bring a high fire danger across the state.
A Tornado Watch and Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect for far eastern New Mexico counties through 9 PM today. This is where severe storms are possible, which could include large hail, damaging winds, and even an isolated tornado. Temperatures are hot again today across New Mexico as well, expect for far northeast New Mexico where a cold front and cloud cover is leaving high temperatures in the 50s in Clayton.
Showers and storms will increase in coverage across eastern New Mexico late tonight through early Saturday. Some of these storms could be strong and produce locally heavy rain. We’ll see a break from the rain Saturday afternoon with the chance for a couple isolated showers and storms later in the day in eastern parts of the state. The western half of New Mexico will see windier weather move in, and with that, a high fire danger.
Stronger winds develop Sunday afternoon, bringing in dry air across all of New Mexico. Southwest winds could gust as high as 35 to 60 mph across the state, causing another very high fire danger. Areas of blowing dust are also possible, especially in southwest New Mexico.
Winds will slowly die down through early next week as high temperatures return closer to average for this time of year. Temperatures will start warming again Wednesday. Rain and thunderstorm chances will return to New Mexico starting Wednesday as well, with higher chances for parts of the state Thursday and Friday.