Drought in Far Northwest Highlands, New Mexico

Severe to extreme drought conditions from August 2021 continued in September.

After a monsoon season that significantly helped to improve drought conditions across northern and central New Mexico, the drought improvement stalled in September 2021 as much quieter and drier conditions settled in. Drought conditions across New Mexico even worsened slightly. Extreme drought conditions did slightly improve to about 19 percent of the state, but areas of severe drought returned to northeastern New Mexico where improvements had been made over the summer. A strong storm system did bring widespread wetting precipitation on the last day of the month which may help improve drought conditions in October 2021. Precipitation totals generally ranged from one half inch to one inch across the area with precipitation totals nearing one and one half inches across eastern New Mexico. Most of this precipitation was recorded on the last day of the month with the passing of the aforementioned storm system.