Drought — Northwest Highlands, New Mexico

2022-10-01 to 2022-10-31 · Northwest Highlands, New Mexico

Event narrative

Moderate to severe drought conditions persisted across the area through October 2022.

Wider weather episode

A very active weather pattern continued through October 2022 with several widespread rainfall events leading to near-record wet conditions in some areas for the month of October. Significant improvements continued for drought across the state, especially northern, central, and western NM. Widespread precipitation totals between two and five inches occurred across the southern half of the state with many areas across the northern half averaging one-half inch to one inch for the month. These totals were on the order of 200 to 400 percent of normal. By months end, only 21 percent of the state was in severe to exceptional drought, of which about 7 percent was extreme drought.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1058374. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.