Windy weather will continue to fan the flames of wildfires burning in New Mexico this week. More days will bring a high fire danger than not through next week.
Winds once again bring a very high fire danger across New Mexico Monday when combined with extremely dry conditions and warm weather. Overnight the winds will die down as a weak backdoor cold front moves into the eastern half of the state. Areas of very heavy smoke and poor air quality will settle into areas around Las Vegas and Santa Fe by early tomorrow morning. Southerly winds will pick up Tuesday afternoon, pushing smoke and fires north. Winds will gust to over 30 mph across much of northern New Mexico where another Red Flag Warning will go into effect.
Strong winds return again Wednesday afternoon. Winds turn back to out of the west with gusts over 30 mph again. Westerly winds will also be bringing in extremely dry air which will bring yet another high fire danger. Another Red Flag Warning will go into effect across parts of the state. A cold front will also sweep across New Mexico on Wednesday, dropping temperatures a few degrees in the afternoon.
We finally see a break from the winds on Thursday though as upper level winds relax for a couple days. This quieter weather will also bring with it much warmer temperatures heading into the weekend. It is short lived though as a strong storm system will scrape across the state again this weekend. This storm will not bring any moisture, but could bring damaging wind gusts. Areas of blowing dust and very warm temperatures will arrive Saturday. Of course, this also means more very high fire danger through the weekend and likely into next week.
