June 10 – Gardeners rejoiced Sunday as a storm swept through the region, soaking thirsty vegetable beds for hours – as well as piñons and junipers – after a dry spell of more than three weeks.
Along with the rain came a temporary return to jacket weather.
Santa Fe cooled to 65 degrees on Monday, after temperatures above 90 degrees in recent days.
The persistent rain on Sunday and Monday may have felt like an early start to the rainy season; However, meteorologists expect a quick return to warm and sunny days – with possible heat advisories – before the onset of monsoon weather patterns.
After weeks of dry weather, storms began dumping rain in several parts of the region on Sunday. The storms could continue through Tuesday, raising concerns about the potential for flooding in the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire’s massive burn scar in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
As of Monday afternoon, Santa Fe had received two-thirds of an inch of rain since Sunday evening, according to National Weather Service readings at the Santa Fe Regional Airport. The long rain totaled 0.67 inches, slightly more precipitation than the city received during the entire month of May.
Over the same stretch, Las Vegas, NM, received more than 2 inches of rain and Los Alamos saw about a third of an inch.
A rain gauge in Santa Rosa measured 3 inches of rain from the storm, and a rain gauge in Fort Sumner recorded 2.9 inches, the highest recorded in the state on Monday.
The impact of the storms was patchy across the region. National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Overpeck noted in a briefing Monday that a weather station in eastern Bernalillo County recorded about 2 inches of rainfall as a result of the storms, while another at the Albuquerque International Sunport recorded just 0.03 inches of rainfall.
A flood watch was in effect through Monday afternoon for the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and communities east of the mountains, the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque warned. The threat of flooding is greater for areas scorched by the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in 2022.
Overpeck said Monday that there is a high risk of flooding on Tuesday on the slopes within the burn scar of the state’s largest wildfire in history.
Floods and landslides have wreaked havoc on communities in San Miguel, Mora and Taos provinces in recent years, where wildfires have swept through. Burned trees that once had long root systems to hold the land in place and slow the flow of water.
The Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management announced Monday that it will test emergency sirens weekly in Mora County so it is prepared to warn residents of flash flooding.
Residents in the area have been affected by flooding and debris flows that have filled acequias and made some roads impassable during and after rainfall.
Flash flooding also poses a risk at other recent burn scars across the region, including that of the Cerro Pelado fire near Los Alamos.
Eastern New Mexico had a “marginal risk” of severe thunderstorms with hail and high winds through Tuesday, Overpeck said, and “patchy fog” could develop to the east and in the Rio Grande Valley south of Albuquerque.
Meteorologists warned that temperatures will rise rapidly across the state this week – perhaps to dangerous levels. Overpeck said the highest temperatures are expected Thursday, when Santa Fe could see a high of 97 and Roswell 107.
“We need to make sure people are aware that it will change from these cooler conditions over the next day or two to quite warm conditions by Thursday,” he said. The National Weather Service will monitor the heat, he added, but residents should “expect heat advisories in principle on Thursday.”
There is the potential for critical fire conditions Friday, especially in western New Mexico, with gusty winds and dry storms, meteorologist Clay Anderson said, and dormant fires started by lightning strikes in recent weeks could spread.
While there is a possibility of severe thunderstorms in the northern and eastern parts of the state on Friday, he said the forecast would be clearer in the coming days.
Overpeck said the weather will likely “go back and forth over the next few weeks” before settling into a firmly established summer monsoon pattern.
“By monsoon pattern we just mean the change in wind,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get daily thunderstorms; we could very well get a monsoon pattern that will make us hot and dry.”
