Our winds are shifting this afternoon with north/northwesterly winds behind a weaker cold front. Cooler temperatures are also following suit especially over the Four Corners and northern New Mexico this afternoon. Some clouds are also working their way back into the state before clearing out later tonight. Highs will be around 5-10° cooler than yesterday, with the ABQ metro reaching the lower 60s, upper 60s for Santa Rosa/Las Vegas, upper 70s into Roswell, and middle 50s for Santa Fe. As we head into the weekend, some active weather spills into the northern mountains. We’ll see higher mountain snow/valley rain showers over far southern Colorado into northern New Mexico. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains could collect 3-5″ at the peaks through Sunday, while the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado could see 12-18″.
Friday will be another very warm and breezy day with highs in the lower 70s in Albuquerque. Afternoon wind gusts will reach 30-45 mph with the strongest east of the mountains. Clouds begin increasing late day ahead of that weekend storm for the north. As the storm passes well to our north Saturday, wind gusts will be the strongest then. We’re looking at widespread 40-55 mph gusts. Some blowing dust could be an issue. Temperatures begin cooling behind a backdoor front late weekend for northeast NM. So Sunday will be much cooler for Clayton, Raton, and Las Vegas than Saturday. We’ll stay above average overall through the next week until a stronger storm approaches our state a week from now.
