For the first time in 5 days, temperatures warmed above average this afternoon. Eastern NM saw the biggest boost with 15-20° warmer from Friday. Our winds have shifted, and so we’re seeing these milder temps with moisture arriving from the west. Skies will remain mainly cloudy throughout the night with some clearing west after midnight. We’ll catch one more day of even warmer temperature statewide for our Super Bowl Sunday. Roswell could even hit 70° Sunday afternoon under mostly sunny skies. For us in the Rio Grande Valley, we’ll climb to almost 60°! It’ll even feel like spring for most of the state. Downsloping winds east of the mountains will make a large difference as well to the warm-up.
Enjoy it, since late Sunday night into Monday a powerful storm moves over the desert southwest. It’ll mainly be too mild at first for snow accumulation for central and southern NM. Otherwise, it’ll set the table for the midweek storm that feature much greater impacts. Valley and rain showers will begin later Monday afternoon. Meanwhile winter storm watches are in effect for the northern mountains Monday into Tuesday where 8-12″+ of snow could fall over 8,000 ft. Our dwindling snowpack will finally see some revival. Valentine’s Day will be in between storms, but will still be windy and cooler with snow showers far north. Our second storm looks more interesting given how cold it’ll be with widespread snow and temps 20-25° below average! This one will have impacts statewide to those roadways. So plan ahead, and have some supplies in the car like blankets and water just in case.
