Drought — Eastern San Miguel County, New Mexico

2020-05-01 to 2020-05-31 · Eastern San Miguel County, New Mexico

Event narrative

Severe drought conditions developed across northern San Miguel County during May 2020. Below normal precipitation amounts set the stage for deteriorating drought conditions.

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions across northern and eastern New Mexico continued to worsen during the month of May with extreme drought conditions developing across portions of north central NM. Moderate to extreme drought conditions worsened to about 38 percent of the state of which about 23 percent across northern NM was deemed as severe to extreme drought. Very dry conditions continued through much of the month of May with precipitation totals throughout the area generally less than half an inch. The exception was across far northeastern NM where a more favorable storm track produced precipitation totals near an inch. Poor snowpack across the northern and western high terrain at the end of April continued to deteriorate throughout the month with essentially near-zero percent of normal values by the end of May. Runoff was well below normal on all rivers and tributaries with even some sections of the Rio Grande running dry below Isleta Pueblo.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 884456. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.