Drought in Southwest Chaves County, New Mexico

Extreme drought persisted across the zone with a sliver of exceptional drought persisting over the far southeastern fringe of the zone.

January saw mostly near normal precipitation across northern and central NM on the whole, resulting in most areas seeing a static state in drought conditions. There were pockets of above normal precipitation focused over the northeastern plains, mainly Colfax and Union Counties, thanks to a blizzard that dumped heavy snow on the region in early January. Areas along the Continental Divide saw near to slightly above normal precipitation in west-central NM which led to a one or two categorical improvement in drought conditions there.