Winter Weather — Tusas Mountains Including Chama, New Mexico

2025-05-05 to 2025-05-06 · Tusas Mountains Including Chama, New Mexico

Event narrative

The Hopewell and Bateman SNOTELs estimated an event total of 12 and 11 inches respectively that occurred over a 36 to 48 hour period in two distinctly separate periods.

Wider weather episode

Abundant moisture pushed east to west across NM behind a strong cold front ahead of a strong upper level low approaching from AZ. The abundant moisture and favorable weather setup allowed for multiple days of strong to severe thunderstorms to develop across northern and central NM from May 4th through the 6th. Alongside all of this was unseasonably cold weather at higher elevations of the northern mountains. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains received 1 to 3 feet of snow at higher elevations above 9,500 feet. These high snow amounts ended up melting fairly quickly or succumbed to rain on snow events producing flooding impacts over portions of the east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that lasted into May 8th.

Key Words: Heavy Snow, Severe Thunderstorms, River Flooding.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1242271. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.