Drought in San Juan Mountains, New Mexico

Exceptional drought conditions from September continued through October 2018.

Widespread severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of September 2018 improved slightly through October 2018 due to several rounds of showers and thunderstorms with locally heavy rainfall. Severe drought conditions improved to 44 percent of the state, of which around 22 percent was deemed extreme drought or worse. Exceptional drought improved very little to around 15 percent of New Mexico. Scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms occurred throughout the month, especially around the higher terrain of central New Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley, and eastern New Mexico. Widespread rainfall amounts of one to three inches occurred across central and eastern New Mexico with less than one inch across the west. The Four Corners region remained mostly dry during October 2018 with no improvement to exceptional drought conditions. An early season snowfall event impacted the northern mountains with around 3 to 6 inches of snow on the 15th. A more significant winter weather event occurred on the 31st when 12 to 17 inches of snow fell over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Lighter snowfall amounts were reported across much of the surrounding area of the northern mountains and northeastern New Mexico.