High Wind in Northern Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

The Taos Ski Valley Kachina Peak station saw a peak gust of 78 mph, while their Highline Ridge station also saw a gust to 60 mph.

A deep upper trough developed over the Great Basin during the day on March 6th with strong mid and upper-level winds ahead of this low and over New Mexico. The upper low also induced the development of a strong 989 mb surface lee low over southeast Colorado by the afternoon. The surface gradient south of this low along with deep daytime mixing resulted in high wind gusts of 60 to 75 mph across central and eastern New Mexico from midday through the evening hours. These strong southwest to west winds combined with the dry soil conditions resulted in blowing dust resulting in near zero visibility in Albuquerque and Roswell. High winds tapered off around sunset for most areas and around midnight across the northeast highlands.