Santa Fe could see early snow this week

Much of Central, Northern N.M. will have hard freeze

Ready for a pre-Halloween touch of snow?

It’s possible, say meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, thanks to a storm system moving south from Canada that will bring a hard freeze to much of Central and Northern New Mexico this week.

“It’s gonna be a big temperature difference,” said meteorologist David Craft. “And there will be some snow possible, with the Sangre de Cristos having the best chance of snow accumulation.” Santa Fe could get its first dusting of the season, he said, “and will likely see a few inches in the surrounding mountains.”

Snow — even if it’s just a few flurries downtown — shouldn’t surprise those who were in Santa Fe in midOctober last year. That’s when the arrival of an El Niño system brought more moisture than usual to the area. The storm was bolstered by a confluence of storm fronts that swept into New Mexico from the east and west, which produced more moisture throughout the following week.

With the coming storm, New Mexico cities like Taos and Raton are more likely to see heavier snows — “a few inches, with Raton getting more,” Craft said — before the system moves southeast and either dissipates or moves out of the state by the weekend.

National Weather Service meteorologist Kerry Jones said in an email Wednesday the storm could bring “enough snow to create travel impacts along I-25 between Glorieta and Raton Pass, and especially near the New Mexico-Colorado line.”

But even as the storm passes through the Santa Fe area, the cold temperatures, due to strike sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, will linger into Friday morning, when Craft predicts “a good hard freeze all over. … Look for temperatures of 28 degrees [Fahrenheit] or below.”

But Santa Fe is expected to dry out, and the skies over the city likely

will clear up later that day.

Saturday and Sunday are expected to be sunny, with temperatures in the mid- to upper 60s, Jones said.

Another storm system bringing fast-moving winds and possible precipitation could develop in the area early next week.

“Some strong winds could develop Monday with showers and winds returning on Tuesday with a chance of more precipitation — possible snow with rain mixed in — around the middle of next week,” Craft said.

National Weather Service meteorologists have said several times this fall they are expecting aboveaverage snowfall this winter.