Much milder weather greeted us this Saturday as temps finally warmed near average. Morning clouds cleared away and brought plenty of sunshine. Stronger downsloping winds carried high temps into upper 50s/lower 60s for eastern NM. Wind gusts topped 35-45 mph for this part of the state. In some cases east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, we’re dealing with very dangerous wind gusts tonight. Raton saw a wind gust of 71 mph! Wind advisories are in effect through 5 am Sunday. The high wind gusts will be something we’ll continue to see throughout all next week. Overnight tonight, clouds will increase south to north. Temps will hold steady, and end up similar to this morning. Sunday will feature mostly cloudy skies with rain showers for the southwest corner northward into the East Mountains. Temps will stay warm enough for all rain.
Highs will remain near 50° for Albuquerque and into the middle 60s east of the mountains with more strong PM wind gusts. Our warming trend will continue for eastern and northern NM, but hold steady south and west with more clouds and rain chances in the area. Silver City and the Gila will pick up the most moisture through Monday with potentially an inch of rain expected. Meanwhile, temperatures continue warming as more storms build out west. Midweek, we’ll see another storm greatly impact New Mexico with extreme and damaging wind gusts the primary threat. The wind gusts could easily create power outages, blowing dust, and reduced visibility with near hurricane force gusts. The northern mountains will pick up additional snowfall as well.
