Heavy Snow — Southern Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

2023-03-20 to 2023-03-22 · Southern Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Heavy snow impacted the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Santa Fe Ski area reported 17 inches of snow, where other reports reported 6 to 12 inches of snow throughout the zone. Difficult to severe winter driving conditions were also relayed by the NM Emergency Operations Center throughout the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in general.

Wider weather episode

A series of upper level disturbances tracked across northern NM from March 20, 2023 to March 22, 2023. Long duration snow reached the northern mountains of NM with little to no breaks during this three day stretch. The heavy snow brought difficult to severe driving conditions to many of the high mountain passes, but surprisingly there was only one road closure on State Highway 17 near the CO border reported. There was also nuisance flooding reported in Taos from persistent light to moderate rainfall and snow melt.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1077903. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.