Windy weather will return to New Mexico during the first week of March. High winds will bring a very high fire danger to the state.
Warmer weather has made its way back into the state Friday afternoon with high temperatures climbing back above average. It’s a calm day out there too with little to no wind. This is going to start changing this weekend as the first in a series of storm systems will scrape across the state. Winds will pick up Saturday afternoon in western New Mexico as the first storm begins moving into the state. This storm will bring a chance for spotty rain, a few sprinkles, and very light mountain snowfall to areas along and north of I-40 early Sunday morning through Sunday evening. Winds will be stronger in eastern New Mexico Sunday afternoon, with gusts as high as 45 mph.
Stronger winds develop Monday afternoon as another storm will be scraping across New Mexico. Wind gusts up to 60 mph will be possible across a large area of New Mexico. These kind of high winds are possible again on Tuesday. The windy weather will create a very high fire danger across a large of area of New Mexico again both days. So if cany wildfire does develop, it will spread rapidly. A bad snowpack and growing drought conditions do not help this fire threat either. There will be a little bit of moisture with this storm though, but it will mostly stay in northern New Mexico with very light rain and light mountain snow. Areas of blowing dust Monday and Tuesday will also cause areas of reduced visibility and poor air quality.
Temperatures will be cooler by the middle of next week thanks to a cold front that will sweep across the state. There is the potential for another storm late next week that could bring some better moisture, but there is still a lot of uncertainty.