Heavy Snow — Southern Sangre De Cristo Mountains Above 9500 Feet, New Mexico

2019-05-08 to 2019-05-10 · Southern Sangre De Cristo Mountains Above 9500 Feet, New Mexico

Event narrative

The high terrain around Cowles and west of Las Vegas picked up 6 to 10 inches of heavy wet snow. Despite the heavy snowfall travel impacts were limited due to warmer surface temperatures.

Wider weather episode

An unseasonably cold upper level low pressure system drifted east through the desert southwest while a potent back door cold front moved southwest through eastern New Mexico on May 8-10, 2019. Showers and thunderstorms developed over northeastern New Mexico as the cold front moved through the area on May 8, 2019. Locally heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts, and hail impacted areas from near Tucumcari to Clovis. Meanwhile, valley rain and high terrain snow spread east across northern New Mexico with heavy wet snow accumulations above 9,000 feet. One to two inches of snow around Taos was able to bring several large Cottonwood trees down with even some damage to one home. The east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains were pounded with eight to 16 inches of wet snow. Travel impacts were limited despite heavy snowfall in the high terrain. Temperatures were cold enough on May 10, 2019 to support snowfall along the Interstate 25 corridor from Raton to Las Vegas and Santa Fe where one to two inches of wet snow fell. Folks along the east slopes of the Sandia Mountains also picked up a couple inches of wet snow on grassy and elevated surfaces.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 812295. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.