Drought — San Francisco River Valley, New Mexico

2021-03-01 to 2021-03-31 · San Francisco River Valley, New Mexico

Event narrative

Exceptional drought conditions from February 2021 continued in March.

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions across northern and central New Mexico remained largely unchanged during the month of March 2021. March was a very active month for the state which saw several high impact winter storms affect the area, particularly the northern high terrain. Despite this, snowpack levels across the state remained poor with snow water equivalent values below normal across all basins. Extreme to exceptional drought improved slightly to about 80 percent with about 53 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 3 inches. However, lower elevations across central and eastern New Mexico received less. Northeastern New Mexico received precipitation amounts of about half an inch to one inch. The lower Rio Grande Valley and the southeastern plains received less precipitation amounts compared to the rest of the area with amounts generally less than half an inch.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 941419. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.