A strong cold front is dividing the state and entire region this Saturday afternoon. Clayton and Raton are in the 40s currently with Las Vegas sitting in the lower 50s. Strong northeasterly winds will continue driving this front westward through the evening and overnight. It’s fairly gusty for northern/eastern NM today as the front crosses. We’ll see a canyon wind develop for the ABQ metro overnight into Sunday morning with gusts 30-40 mph. These canyon winds will bring some moisture to central and eastern parts of the state. We’ll see better shower chances Sunday afternoon through midweek, mainly for the higher terrain.
Highs will approach 70° Sunday across the Rio Grande Valley as the front stalls over the central mountains. Temps cool over southeastern NM will drop 15° with Roswell only reaching into the lower 60s under mainly cloudy skies. Western parts of the state will enjoy a milder day with temperatures closer to average. Overall, there’s still colder air to our north with this forecast, so the stronger spring breezes will continue through next week with the windiest days coming Monday and Tuesday where gusts could top 50-55 mph.
