A strong cold front moves into New Mexico tonight, bringing cooler air heading into the New Year. Warmer weather will again return later this week.
Strong winds brought a high fire danger in eastern New Mexico Monday afternoon. Thankfully, those winds have been lighter than forecast and are dying down tonight. Many areas in eastern New Mexico measured wind gusts over 40 mph, with a few places clocking gusts up to nearly 60 mph early this morning. The westerly wind also brought in much warmer weather today, with highs climbing into the 60s in Albuquerque and close to 80° in Carlsbad. Highs were in the 60s all the way up to Clayton today, with 70s as far north as Socorro.
While the winds are quickly dying down Monday evening, a cold front is moving into northeast New Mexico. This front will bring much colder air into the state by Tuesday morning, but especially in eastern New Mexico where highs temperatures Tuesday will be over 20° colder than today in some places. Winds may still be gusty Tuesday afternoon across northern New Mexico. Another cold front will move into the state from the northwest, bringing in more slightly cooler temperatures for New Year’s Day.