ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – With temperatures heating up after a rough winter, the Rio Grande may just be days away from drying up through the metro. Water managers talked about the unusual and earlier drying than in recent years. “It’s the lowest I’ve seen the river in my tenure in the district this early in the year,” said Anne Marken, River Operations Manager at the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.
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It’s another startling sight along the Rio Grande through Albuquerque, with water managers saying we’re facing a second straight year of dry river bed, much further north than typical. “This would be the third year that we have seen river channel drying in the Albuquerque reach since the 1980s, and the first time it happened was in 2022, and there was also river channel drying in 2025. In both of those years that drying happened in July, and we’re here in May seeing it,” said Marken.
At this time of year, the river is usually starting to run dry far further south, around Socorro or Valencia County. Anne Marken with the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District said that the warm and dry winter left little snow pack, and above-average temperatures in March mean spring runoff from early snow melt is already gone. “This year, there’s never been a point in the season where there was enough water in the system to meet all of the irrigators’ needs and so irrigators have been having to wait extended periods between irrigation deliveries and the crops are just not getting the water where they need it,” said Marken…