Drought — West Central Mountains, New Mexico

2021-12-01 to 2021-12-31 · West Central Mountains, New Mexico

Event narrative

Severe drought conditions from November 2021 continued in December.

Wider weather episode

After a very quiet November 2021, December proved to be a much more active month with several storm systems impacting northern and central New Mexico. High winds were the most dominant feature over the area with numerous windy days observed. The storm track became more favorable for New Mexico during the latter half of the month as a few storm systems did bring widespread heavy snow, particularly across the western and northern high terrain which helped to improve snowpack numbers. This did result in slightly improving drought conditions for these areas, however, for the eastern half of the state, drought conditions only worsened due to very little precipitation totals. Across the state, about 76 percent was in at least severe drought conditions with 21 percent categorized as extreme drought. Precipitation totals across much of central and eastern New Mexico were generally less than one half inch. High terrain areas across north central and western New Mexico fared better with precipitation totals ranging from about one to three inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 991451. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.