ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – People throughout the Metro woke up to the first snow of the season Friday morning with a cold front bringing inches of snow to parts of Albuquerque and other spots in the state. It’s a major shift from earlier this week when temperatures were in the 70s. The Foothills and areas further east saw up to four inches of snow this morning.

“Yesterday it was gray and cold. Today, we woke up to snow, about an inch and half to two inches, and our horse and our donkey loved it! As did our dogs,” said one East Mountains resident named Ellen.

Friday morning brought flurries to the Metro, garnering as much as two inches in the Foothills; and locations east like Tijeras and Edgewood picked up as much as four inches.

With the first snow of the season for Albuquerque, the city said it only had a small crew working: a supervisor on patrol and five others on standby in case road conditions got rocky. However, the Department of Municipal Development said crews didn’t see any slick streets.

The storm moved in as rain Friday morning and quickly switched to snow in areas like Belen and Los Lunas. “This is actually about on time for us here in Albuquerque. We typically see our first average snowfall usually in the beginning of November so this is right about on par for us. It’s not unusual to see a snowfall like this,” said KRQE News 13’s Chief Meteorologist Grant Tosterud.

However, what is unusual about this storm is where it came from: “It was just kind of a bit of a weird storm too. Most of moisture out of this storm actually fell across the southern part of the state. So, areas like Ski Apache actually picked up more snowfall than areas like the Taos Ski Valley,” Tosterud said.

With El Niño on the horizon, Tosterud says New Mexico may be in for a wild winter: “El Niño is a good thing for us here in New Mexico. That kind of weather pattern usually means more snow, more rain, colder temperatures for us here in New Mexico. So, hoping that all pans out and brings us a wetter winter.”

“I think it’s just so magnificent and I hope everybody enjoys it as much as I do,” Ellen said.