Weekend storms helped, but drought remains
Hot, dry weather returning; no more rain expected soon
Widespread rain over the weekend helped farmers, firefighters and a parched-dry state, but the precipitation was more a courtesy call than a fix of any substance.
“It had an impact; it made a dent,” said Kerry Jones, meteorologist with the Albuquerque office of the National Weather Service. “But in two or three days we will be talking about everything drying out and warming up.”
With the exception of potential thunderstorms in the eastern part of the state over the next few days and in the higher elevations on Sunday, Jones said no more rain is expected for at least the next week.
“Climatologically, the last 15 days of June are the hottest two weeks in most places in the state, so the (rainstorm) on Saturday was unusual,” Jones said.
The rain, a gift of leftovers from Hurricane Bud, cooled things down. Saturday’s high in Albuquerque was 74 degrees, 15 degrees lower than average for the date.
Also on Saturday, the Albuquer-
que International Sunport, the city’s official weather-monitoring station, recorded 0.83 inch of rain. Jones said that was the most rain in a day at the airport in nearly three years — since 1.05 inches was recorded there on Sept. 22, 2015.
Unofficially, some parts of the city got more than an inch. A station in the Four Hills area measured 1.26 inches. At Isleta Pueblo, south of Albuquerque, 1.55 inches of rain was recorded.
Saturday’s rain boosted Albuquerque’s month-to-date rain total to 1.40 inches, compared with the average for this time in June, 0.27 inch. Albuquerque’s year-to-date total is now 2.24 inches, compared with the average for this point of the year, 2.81 inches.
David Gensler, water operations manager for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which provides irrigation for 70,000 acres of farmland, said the rain took some of the urgency out of water deliveries.
“We didn’t get a huge benefit, but it was a welcome benefit,” Gensler said. “For most of our farmers, that’s three or four days’ worth of water. They can delay irrigating for a few days. We had nice little showers that cooled things down and wetted things up.”
Jones said that about a half-inch of rain dropped on the 47,370-acre Buzzard Fire, 10 miles northeast of Reserve, but that much less fell on the 36,740-acre Ute Park Fire, between Eagle Nest Lake and Cimarron. Any rain helps, however, and firefighters have made headway on both those blazes. The Buzzard Fire is reported to be 82 percent contained, and the Ute Park Fire is at 97 percent contained.
Rainfall also helped firefighters gain ground on the 34,161-acre 416 Fire, burning near Durango, Colo. That fire is reported to be 30 percent contained.
More than 18 percent of the state is in exceptional drought, the most severe category, and more than 99 percent is in some level of drought. The recent rains probably did not improve that situation much, if any.
And Jones said the outlook for the Albuquerque area this week is hotter every day, with Thursday, the longest day of the year, and Friday being the hottest. Temperatures are expected to climb into the high 90s and perhaps reach 100 before the weekend.