Drought — Chuska Mountains, New Mexico

2020-12-01 to 2020-12-31 · Chuska Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Extreme drought conditions from November 2020 continued in December.

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions across northern and central New Mexico continued to worsen during the month of December 2020. December once again saw below normal precipitation across the entire area with extreme to exceptional drought worsening to about 82 percent of the state. While the overall pattern remained active with a few storm systems impacting the state, a lack of deep moisture generally resulted in only light precipitation. The exception was across the northern high terrain which benefited from favorable storm tracks and a couple heavy snow events. Most of the state generally saw precipitation totals around a quarter to a half an inch. The northern high terrain continued to fare the best with liquid equivalent amounts of one to two inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 927994. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.