NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A winter storm is moving into New Mexico on Friday. Rain and snow will continue through Sunday, bringing bigger impacts this weekend.
Arctic air has moved into eastern New Mexico, where temperatures have been dropping on Friday afternoon. It is already down into the single digits in Clayton and in the teens and 20s across the rest of the eastern half of the state. We’ve also been watching rain and snow moving into New Mexico today, with some places in eastern New Mexico as far south as Roswell seeing a mix of rain and snow. A burst of snow is likely in northern, western, and eastern New Mexico on Friday, bringing some minor travel impacts to these areas. Freezing rain will also be possible in southeast New Mexico, while rain showers will fall in the lower elevations of the rest of the state, including Albuquerque. Rain and snow will taper off briefly early Saturday morning for many areas.
More rain and snow will develop through the day Saturday. Heavier snow will develop across eastern New Mexico through Saturday night, bringing pockets of 6″+ of snow, and freezing rain to far southeast parts of the state. The heaviest snow will be along the central mountain chain, along with narrow bands of heavy snow that will stretch across eastern New Mexico. Heavy snow will also fall at times across northern New Mexico, where 6″+ will fall in the mountains, and 1-6″ in the upper Rio Grande Valley. The Albuquerque Metro will continue to see rain, along with the rest of southern and southwestern New Mexico. However, the Arctic air will continue moving west, eventually changing rain over to snow in the Albuquerque area around 9 pm Saturday. The snow will continue into the early morning hours on Sunday. A dusting to 3″ of snow is looking likely around Albuquerque…