Heavy Snow — West Slopes of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

2015-02-22 to 2015-02-23 · West Slopes of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

CoCoRaHS, public, and SNOTEL sites reported between 3 and 10 inches of new snow over the area. This was the first big event in nearly one month for the west slopes. The 8 inches recorded on the 22nd and the 6 inches recorded on the 23rd in Cerro set new records for each calendar date, respectively. It was the heaviest 2-day total in Cerro since 2008.

Wider weather episode

A very dry and warm start to the month of February ended with an extremely beneficial pattern change that delivered epic snowfall amounts to the northern high terrain of New Mexico. The big change arrived beginning on the 22nd as a powerful blast of arctic air moved south and west across the area and plunged New Mexico into winter once again. Meanwhile, a series of upper level low pressure systems crossed from southern California into Arizona and pumped abundant moisture over New Mexico. The heaviest snowfall accumulations occurred over the northern high terrain where 1 to 2 feet of new snow was reported. A strong surface pressure gradient in place over the area also produced strong gap winds in the Rio Grande Valley. Widespread difficult to severe driving conditions were reported along with several road closures over portions of New Mexico. This was the first in a series of significant winter storms that impacted the area through early March.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 554279. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.