Drought — Tusas Mountains Including Chama, New Mexico

2022-05-01 to 2022-05-31 · Tusas Mountains Including Chama, New Mexico

Event narrative

Severe drought conditions from April 2022 worsened in May with extreme drought conditions areawide.

Wider weather episode

An exceptionally dry and windy spring season for northern and central New Mexico continued during the month of May which saw significantly worsening drought conditions. A storm track that had remained northerly all spring season continued during May, but the month did see return flow across the eastern plains begin to pull low-level Gulf moisture into the area. This allowed for dryline thunderstorms to impact eastern New Mexico on several days which did bring beneficial moisture. Despite this, precipitation deficits only grew. About 97 percent of New Mexico was now in at least severe drought with about 90 percent in at least extreme drought. Of this, 46 percent of the state was in exceptional drought which was a significant increase from the 16 percent at the end of April. The eastern plains saw the most significant drought expansion with nearly all of the eastern plains in the exceptional drought category. Precipitation totals across eastern New Mexico were spotty, but some locations did receive 1 to 2 inches of rainfall. Across central and western New Mexico, rain totals were well below half an inch. The Albuquerque area received only a trace of rain which made for 62 consecutive days without measurable precipitation.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1018496. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.