NM & CO Blizzard & Snow Nov. 6-8, 2024

[William Monfredo]

Major winter-storm for northern and eastern NM produced stout totals by Thursday late afternoon. This included Rio Rancho w/ ~ 6 inches, Santa Fe w/ over a foot in spots, and two feet of accumulation in Las Vegas, NM where they're expecting more. RAP model also shows "lagniappe," something extra: Hurricane Rafael in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

[William Monfredo]

I suppose when the National Guard gets called out to run snow plows, you might have a problem.​

As of lunchtime today in New Mexico per KRQE...​

Sandia Park: 16.3 " Albuquerque: 6 " Grants: 11.6 "​

Angel Fire: 15.9 " Raton: 14.5 " White Rock: 14.1" Los Alamos: 12.5 "​

Las Vegas: 21.2 " to 31.7 " (Average annual snowfall is 27 "...city officials haven't seen this in 30 years.)​

Rio Rancho: 7.5 " Santa Fe: 14.5 " to 15.2 " Clayton: 15.6 "​

 

[John Farley]

A couple of pictures from Santa Fe:





Lots of power outages yesterday in Santa Fe due to tree branches falling on lines. Trees that still have leaves do not do well with a foot of snow. I am working on a detailed write-up on this storm which I hope to post in the next day or two.

 

[John Farley]

I have now finished a detailed writeup on this storm. But first, one more picture, from the early stages of the storm while I was still focused on its photogenic aspects"



Around this time, though, the storm was beginning to cause power outages, which affected tens of thousands of customers in northern New Mexico. My full write-up on this storm, with details of my observations and also a discussion of the meteorology and impacts of the storm, can be found at https://www.johnefarley.com/storm11-678-24.htm

 

[William Monfredo]

How can I forget Ruidoso, NM received over 4 inches of snow, James Wilson?! Also, BOU reminded me that the same mid-latitude cyclone has given Denver precipitation for six days now. Situation winds down for them this morning. Use this link below to see interactive, 72-hour snowfalls.

https://www.weather.gov/source/crh/snowmap.html?zoom=7&lat=33.28&lon=-106.2&hr=72

 

[William Monfredo]

One more...not a tornado, but you can see the snow quite well in much of NM & CO in this visible image (NCAR). I'd say residents in those locations experienced a moderately early, substantial, & memorable storm. And some folks can continue to remember it when they're skiing on it.

 

[William Monfredo]

Oh btw, if you didn't clean the snow off your car yet, or you need to do so sometime this winter, here's some indignant thoughts how. Funny

 

[James K]

It was separate system, but including it in this post anyway.. first 'storm' came in night of Nov 3rd starting as rain then converting to snow, so our first snow of the season (just an inch or 2) was Nov 4. It cleared out in the afternoon.

Then the 2nd storm (the main one) moved in Evening of Nov 5, rather than the predicted "start as rain" it went ringt to snow & snowed all night. 9" on the ground morning of Nov 6, & it snowed lightly all day & all night. Clouds cleared out for awhile afternoon of Nov 7, but the storm wasn't over I was just in the dry-slot. Snow started again at sunset. Was clear again morning of Nov 8 (but like before storm wasn't over) by mid/late-morning heavy snow was coming down, then snowed at varying degrees rest of the day & into the night. Remaining clouds cleared out on Nov 9, at that point the storm was done & gone.
Total for the Nov 5-9 period was 16+ inches (true total not known since some of it melted). There was 1" of water in the rain gauge, but not sure how accurate that is.
Driving around I did see some branches down...as is common with these large early-season heavy wet snows, and the fact some trees still havent dropped their leaves. I de-snowed some of my trees (ones that I could reach with an 8' board) twice. Only got a couple small branches broken.