Drought — West Central Highlands, New Mexico

2022-03-01 to 2022-03-31 · West Central Highlands, New Mexico

Event narrative

Severe drought conditions from February 2022 continued in March.

Wider weather episode

As what's typically expected for New Mexico during March, the focus turned to high winds rather than precipitation. A couple of strong spring-like storm systems did impact New Mexico during the month, but a more northerly storm track was favored. While the northern mountains and basins were favored due to this, southern areas continued to suffer with well below normal precipitation totals and snowpack. Drought conditions across the state worsened with about 91 percent in at least severe drought conditions. About 44 percent of that was categorized as extreme or exceptional drought with about 6 percent in exceptional drought. Precipitation totals across much of northern and central New Mexico generally ranged from one quarter to one half inch. High terrain areas across north central New Mexico fared better with precipitation totals closer to one inch.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1006905. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.