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

Exceptional drought conditions from June continued through July 2018. The Carson National Forest was re-opened during July 2018 and fire restrictions were dropped to stage one at most locations.

Widespread severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of June 2018 improved only slightly through July 2018 despite greater coverage of showers and thunderstorms with locally heavy rainfall. Severe drought conditions held steady at nearly 70 percent of the state, of which around 46 percent was deemed extreme drought or worse. Exceptional drought improved marginally to around 16 percent of New Mexico. The frequency of showers and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall increased dramatically across the state during July, especially around the higher terrain of central New Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley, and highlands of eastern New Mexico. Several strong back door frontal boundaries shifted all the way west to the Continental Divide. The heaviest rainfall in July occurred in the area from near Santa Fe and Las Vegas southward to Albuquerque and Ruidoso where slight improvements were made to drought conditions. Brief minor flooding occurred on a couple river points in the Rio Grande Basin as flash flooding from nearby areas allowed river flows to spike. Several new small wildfire starts occurred in July due to lightning strikes in forested areas that still experienced patchy dry areas and low soil moisture. Stage two fire restrictions and several forest closures across New Mexico in June were slowly lifted through July.