Dry March puts more of NM in drought
Forecast calls for 40% chance of showers today and tonight
Forget all that stuff about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb.
In New Mexico this year, March came in dry and went out the same way. March 2016, in fact, is tied with March 1956 as the driest March in New Mexico since 1895, according to the National Centers of Environmental Information.
And if that isn’t scary enough, information released Thursday shows that 43 percent of the state is locked in moderate drought, a 25 percent increase from two weeks ago.
But take heart. Remember April showers.
They may kick in here the next few days.
Forecasts call for a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today and tonight.
“Today is looking good,” said Brian Guyer, meteorologist with the Albuquerque office of the National Weather Service. “Precipitation looks to favor central and western New Mexico with one-quarter to a half inch of rain. We could get up to an inch along the Continental Divide, probably a quarter inch here in Albuquerque. After three months with no wetting precipitation, a quarter inch is going to feel amazing.”
Guyer said that by Saturday morning, the rains will have moved into the northern mountains.
“But on Sunday, we will see clouds and maybe some rain showers moving (into Albuquerque) from the west by the end of the day,” he said. “Monday and Tuesday look unsettled again. We will have widespread showers.”
He said temperatures over the next few days will range from lows in the 40s to highs in the low 60s.
Any sort of precipitation will be welcome, since we have been getting nothing or next to nothing since the beginning of the year. As of Thursday, Albuquerque had received 0.42 inch of precipitation in 2016. The normal accumulation by this point is 1.56 inches.
New Mexico got an average of 0.06 inch of precipitation in March, which matches March 1956 for the driest New Mexico March on record since 1895. The state’s average amount of precipitation in March is 0.72 inch. The most precipitation ever recorded in New Mexico during March is 2.21 inches in 1905.
The recent arid weather caused a return of drought to New Mexico for the first time since early December. Now, 43 percent of the state — covering most of the western counties and extending into the southcentral counties of Doña Ana, Lincoln and Otero — is in moderate drought. Almost all the rest of the state is listed as abnormally dry.