Drought in Northwest Highlands, New Mexico

Extreme drought conditions from May 2022 improved to severe drought conditions across the area in June.

After months of exceptionally dry, windy conditions that only worsened drought conditions across northern and central New Mexico, the month of June finally saw improvement thanks to an early onset of the monsoon season. Daily rounds of scattered to numerous thunderstorms brought welcome rainfall, especially across western and central New Mexico where the monsoonal moisture plume was focused most days. Two to six inches of rain across this area made the desert southwest some of the wettest areas in the continental United States during the month of June 2022, and these June rainfall totals were some of the highest in 50 years, about 5 to 10 standard deviations above normal. This finally resulted in drought improvements across the state with 95 percent of New Mexico in at least severe drought. About 58 percent of that was in at least extreme drought with about 12 percent in the exceptional category.