Heavy Snow — San Juan Mountains, New Mexico

2017-02-27 to 2017-02-28 · San Juan Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Snowfall amounts across the high terrain of eastern Rio Arriba County ranged from 12 to 20 inches. The 17 inches reported at Chama on the morning of the 28th set a new daily record.

Wider weather episode

A fierce jet stream within the base of an upper level trough ejected quickly east across the southwest U.S. at the end of February. A deep tap of moisture surging northeast ahead of this system from the eastern Pacific interacted with a cold front arriving from the Great Basin to produce heavy mountain snow across northern and western New Mexico. West and southwest facing slopes along the Continental Divide and much of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains reported between one and two feet of snow. The 17 inches of snowfall at Chama and the 15 inches at Dulce set new daily records for the 28th. Meanwhile, the combination of powerful winds aloft and a strong surface pressure gradient over eastern New Mexico produced widespread strong to damaging winds. Many locations across the eastern plains reported peak winds between 65 and 75 mph. A semi-trailer was blown over and damaged along U.S. Highway 285 south of Vaughn and power outages were reported around Lincoln County. The most significant blowing dust event of the season so far was reported across much of southeastern New Mexico. The visibility was reduced to two miles around Portales.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 672751. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.