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

2018-11-01 to 2018-11-30 · East Slopes of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Exceptional to extreme drought conditions from October continued through November 2018.

Wider weather episode

Widespread moderate to severe drought conditions at the end of October 2018 continued to improve through November 2018 across southern and eastern portions of the state. Unfortunately, extreme to exceptional drought conditions persisted over the northwestern half of the state despite more frequent rounds of light rain showers and mountain snow. Severe drought conditions improved to 36 percent of the state, of which around 21 percent was deemed extreme drought or worse. Exceptional drought remained at roughly 15 percent of New Mexico. Drought conditions were removed from much of far eastern New Mexico and southern portions of the state. Precipitation amounts for November 2018 ranged from around one half inch to one inch of parts of eastern New Mexico. A couple winter storm systems moved through the northern mountains and brought much needed snowfall to the region. Snow pack conditions by the end of the month were the best in several years for the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 788158. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.