Drought — Lower Chama River Valley, New Mexico

2013-01-01 to 2013-01-31 · Lower Chama River Valley, New Mexico

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions persisted across the NWS Albuquerque County Warning Area (CWA) as the new year began.

Much of the area received well below normal precipitation in January, as only three significant systems delivered moisture to parts of the area. Northwest New Mexico, for example, received above normal precipitation with amounts 140-180% of normal. Other areas that were above normal for the month included the southwest mountains at 110-160% of normal, the eastern plains, ranging from 105-150% of normal, and some of the higher elevation areas of northern New Mexico where precipitation ranged from 107-140% of normal. The remainder of the area continued previous trends of below to well-below normal precipitation varying from 14% of normal near Ocate and Socorro to 60% of normal near Clines Corners, Sumner Lake, El Morro, Mosquero and Wolf Canyon.

Severe drought (D2) continued across most of the ABQ CWA. D2 conditions were present along central and western New Mexico, including the far northwest highlands, San Juan Mountains, Jemez Mountains, Lower Rio Grande Valley and as far east as eastern Lincoln County. Extreme (D3) drought was prevalent across much of the eastern plains from the central mountain chain eastward to include Colfax, Union, Mora, Harding, San Miguel, Guadalupe, De Baca, Quay, Curry, Roosevelt and portions of Chaves counties. D3 drought was also present across portions of San Juan, McKinley and Cibola counties. Toward the end of the month, the drought status had improved to D2 status for the far northeast part of the state. Exceptional (D4) drought expanded across portions of Union, Curry and Roosevelt counties in the east. Precipitation, though not especially abundant, precluded D2 drought status for the San Francisco River Valley in southwest New Mexico.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 423108. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.