Winter Storm — San Juan Mountains, New Mexico

2014-12-25 to 2014-12-26 · San Juan Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

COOP, CoCoRaHS and SNOTEL reports across the area indicated between 6 to 11 inches of snowfall.

Wider weather episode

A strong, slow-moving upper level storm system crossed central and northern New Mexico Christmas night through the 26th. Areas of snow initially set up over northwest and west-central New Mexico late Christmas day along the associated Pacific front. As the cold front slowly moved eastward, bands of heavy snow developed and quickly expanded resulting in widespread, moderate to significant accumulations for the higher elevations of central and northern New Mexico as well as the east-central and northeast high plains. Meanwhile, a back door cold frontal boundary shifted southwest over the northeast plains and stalled along the east slopes of the central mountain chain. The combination of strong lift with the upper low and upslope flow along the front produced heavy snowfall accumulations for the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Many areas in the high terrain reported 5 to 11 inches. Moderate snowfall accumulations of 3 to 6 inches were also reported along the Interstate 40 corridor around the Sandia Mountains and the Continental Divide as well as near Clines Corners and Vaughn. Though late in the day, many areas experienced a true White Christmas if only for a few hours.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 548649. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.