Heavy Snow — Northern Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

2024-02-02 to 2024-02-03 · Northern Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

The Taos Ski Valley area reported amounts ranging from 27 to 33 inches of snow within their area. Other reports across the zone ranged from 14 to 22 inches of snow.

Wider weather episode

A winter storm system from the Pacific crossed west to east across northern NM on February 2nd bringing heavy snow to the northern mountains of NM. Snow began in western areas of NM during the morning of the 2nd, expanding to the central mountain chain a few hours later. While the Chuska, Jemez, and Tusas Mountains saw accumulations of 6 to 14 inches, heavy snow piled up over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains totaling over 20 inches on some peaks. Taos Ski Valley reported 29 inches by the afternoon of February 3rd. This heavy snow caused severe winter driving conditions over portions of the northern mountains. U.S. Highway 64 between Tierra Amarilla and Tres Piedras was closed due to the winter weather. These severe winter driving conditions spread down the Raton Pass and Johnson/Bartlett Mesas and along U.S. Highway 64 between Raton and Capulin. A strong portion of the jetstream also accompanied this winter system and strengthened over NM as the center of the storm system exited into Texas on February 3rd. Atmospheric mixing and mountain wave activity mainly along and east of the central mountain chain acted to translate these high winds aloft to the surface. High wind gusts of 58 to 75 mph were observed over mountain ranges mainly south of I-40 and over portions of the east-central and southeastern plains of NM. These included two peak wind gusts of 75 mph, one being at the Magdalena Observatory in Catron County and the other by a private weather station northwest of Roswell. The second of which was coincident with a report of a semi rollover 20 miles north of Roswell along U.S. Highway 285. Thankfully, there was no report of injuries or fatalities. Blowing dust was also observed by the Roswell Industrial Airport ASOS causing visibility to fall as low as one statute mile at times.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1150692. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.