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

2018-03-01 to 2018-03-31 · West Slopes of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Extreme drought conditions from February continued through the end of March. A couple of weak storm systems moved through the area during March with only light snowfall amounts. Snow-water equivalent values for the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range basin of New Mexico was only 22 percent of normal by the end of March.

Wider weather episode

Widespread severe drought conditions at the end of February continued to deteriorate and expand in coverage through March. Precipitation across the state was below normal as there were only a couple weak storm systems that brought light to moderate rain and snow to the region. Snowpack by the end of March was nearly non-existent with many locations reporting their lowest snow-water equivalent values in over 10 years, and in some cases, the lowest on record. Several rounds of wind and very low humidity prompted red flag warnings on several days across central and eastern New Mexico through March. Severe drought conditions held constant at nearly 80 percent of the state, of which 35 percent was deemed extreme drought. A large wildfire was reported over extreme northeastern Union County. Burn bans continued to expand in coverage over several areas of the state. The USDA declared several counties as primary natural disaster areas on March 30, 2018 due to losses and damages from drought. Counties across northern and central New Mexico within the disaster declaration included: Catron, Guadalupe, Harding, McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, and Taos. Farmers and ranchers in several other counties also qualified for natural disaster assistance, including: Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, De Baca, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Quay, Roosevelt, Socorro, Torrance, and Union.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 738376. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.