Wind gusts up to 55 mph will return to parts of New Mexico Saturday afternoon, bringing another round of high fire danger. Temperatures will also be much warmer starting this weekend.
It’s been a warmer and calmer day across New Mexico with high temperatures climbing up to right around average for this time of year. Winds have been light to calm across the entire state as well. The winds will pick up Saturday afternoon though with westerly wind gusts as high as 30 to 55 mph. The strongest winds will be along and east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains down to Clines Corners. Unfortunately, this will once again bring a very high fire danger across the entire eastern half of the state. Temperatures will also be much warmer, over 10° warmer compared to today for many.
Winds die down Saturday night as a weak backdoor cold front moves in from the northeast. This will bring in a slight drop in temperatures Sunday across the state. This cool down is short lived with a large ridge of high pressure developing west of New Mexico on Monday. This will bring a stretch of some of the warmest weather so far this year. Albuquerque will have a chance to see its first 80° day of the year by the end of next week. Winds will stay light most of the week as well. A few isolated showers and storms are possible in southern New Mexico Thursday, but most of the rain will evaporate before reaching the ground.