Heavy Snow — Central Highlands, New Mexico

2025-04-19 to 2025-04-20 · Central Highlands, New Mexico

Event narrative

A trained spotter at the Bowlins Flying C Ranch Gas Station observed between 8.5 to 9 inches of snowfall. According to the Torrance County Sheriff's Office, I-40 was closed from Clines Corners to Moriarty from 4/19/2025 15:00 to 22:00 local standard time. This was due to slick road conditions and low visibility from snow resulting in 5 separate crashes involving around 15 vehicles. The crashes involved mostly semitrucks and a few RVs and passenger vehicles. Thankfully, drivers and passengers only suffered minor injuries.

Wider weather episode

An upper level low moved southeast from Utah and across New Mexico late on April 18th into April 19th. The low along with a backdoor front pushing through northeast and east central NM helped bring Pacific and Gulf moisture into the state resulting in beneficial snow and rain across parts of northern and much of central NM. Meanwhile, gusty west winds resulted in some blowing dust across southern New Mexico south of the storm. Visibility dropped to at worst 1 to 2 miles in this part of the state. In the end, around 3 to 5 inches of snowfall was observed across portions of west central New Mexico near Gallup and across much of the northern mountains, except for 6 to 7 inches of snowfall in the Jemez Mountains. Around 1 to 2.5 inches of snowfall was observed in the Santa Fe Metro and the foothills of the Sandia Mountains on the eastern side of the Albuquerque Metro. However, the biggest snowfall amounts were observed across the east slopes of the Sandia and Manzano mountains and central highlands where 6 to as much as 10 inches of snowfall was observed. Slick road conditions from the snow resulted in several multi-vehicle accidents on I-40 from Clines Corners to Moriarty shutting down the interstate for much of the afternoon and evening. Snow tapered off late April 19th into early April 20th as the system exited into West Texas.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1236207. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.