An extreme fire danger develops across parts of New Mexico Thursday afternoon with high winds. Rain and mountain snow chances return though Friday and Saturday.
Winds have started picking up across New Mexico Wednesday afternoon with gusts as high as 40 mph. Temperatures are much warmer today as well, with highs over 20° warmer compared to yesterday across eastern New Mexico where highs are in the 80s and 90s. Winds will die down overnight, but remain breezy for some. The strongest winds are still forecast for Thursday afternoon, when we’ll see widespread wind gusts around 40 to 55 mph. A few places could even see wind gusts as high as 65 mph. This will bring an extreme fire danger from southwest to northeast New Mexico. This means that if any fire does develop, it could spread rapidly and uncontrollably. High winds will also kick up areas of blowing dust, reducing visibility especially in dust prone areas. These winds will slowly settle down overnight.
Windy weather will return to southern and eastern parts of New Mexico Friday afternoon, however spotty rain and mountain snow showers will begin moving into northwest parts of the state. This is a part of a storm system that will move through New Mexico Friday and Saturday. Rain and higher elevation snow will move east across the state through Friday night, becoming more widespread by Saturday. Snow levels may even drop as low as 7,000′ to 6,500′ by early Saturday morning. The highest chances for rain will be in western, central, northern, and eastern New Mexico through Saturday night. A few spotty showers will also be possible in southern New Mexico.
Drier and warmer weather will return starting Easter Sunday. This warming trend will continue into next week. We will hang onto the dry weather for most of New Mexico next week, but the winds will be much lighter.