Drought — Chuska Mountains, New Mexico

2021-02-01 to 2021-02-28 · Chuska Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Extreme drought conditions from January 2021 continued in February.

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions across northern and central New Mexico remained largely unchanged during the month of February 2021. A very active storm track throughout the month saw several storm systems impact much of the state. Despite this, snowpack levels across the state remained poor with snow water equivalent values below normal across all basins. Extreme to exceptional drought remained the same at about 82 percent of the state with about 54 percent deemed exceptional drought. The high terrain areas of northern and western New Mexico saw the highest precipitation amounts with totals of about 1 to 2 inches. However, lower elevations across central and eastern New Mexico received less with amounts generally around half an inch to three quarters of an inch of precipitation.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 936803. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.