Hey, Karen, great pics and account. I saw the VERY beginnings of this event over NM, but had no idea what was to come. My wife and I were wrapping up a vacation in New Mexico that included several days of skiing in the awesome snow NM has been getting all season. But toward the end of our week, warmth had come to the valleys, with temperatures in the 70s in Albuquerque and the 60s in Santa Fe, with clear skies and bright sunshine.
Forecasts did call for some rain and snow showers Sunday night through Tuesday, but as of Sunday morning, when we were packing up to come home, there was no forecast of the massive storm this turned out to be. (Since this was a non-chase vacation, I had not looked at models or WX data, or attempted any forecasts of my own; just going by NWS and TWC forecasts, so maybe there was some sign in the data or models that they missed, but I did not look so did not see it.)
Anyway, by the time we were flying out of ABQ Sunday afternoon around 2:30, it was evident something was up with the weather, though I never would have believed what ultimately happened. Still, I wish I had taken pics as we were flying out. There were impressive CBs, with hard towers and anvils, and tops around 30,000 feet, all along the eastern slopes of the central mountains. Snow was beginning to fall west of the mountains, but was evaporating before reaching the ground, so west of the mountains there was just virga, though we did fly through some of these snow showers aloft before getting up to the cloud base level.
Over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and on the east slopes of the Sandia Mountains, however, it was a different story - by 3 pm the CBs were massive and widespread, and precip clearly was reaching the ground. I saw later the ABQ NWS did mention the possibility of thunder with some of these cells, though I do not know whether that happened. I wish I had put my camera where I could reach it and taken some pictures - it looked like summer thunderstorms, the convection was so impressive. Whether or not there was thunder, the precip went quickly to snow, especially east of the central mountains, and it did not quit for any length of time for 2 days.
In fact, over the next 2 days, 2 -3 feet of snow fell on the east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo and Sandia Mountains, and even a lot in the valleys and urban areas - 2 feet in Las Vegas (NM), Sandia Park, and Cedar Crest (on the east side of the mountains, where the upslope Karen mentioned was maximized), and 11-18 inches in Santa Fe, 14 inches in Los Alamos, and 4-10 inches in Albuquerque (all west of the central mountains, though Los Alamos gets some upslope on the Jemez Mountains). Besides wishing I had had the camera, I also wish we had a few more days so I could have skied all that snow, and gotten some pictures like Karen's. Still, this has been one awesome snow year in NM, and I am happy to have had some chances to get there and ski it. And all this is very good news for the Southwest, where a 5 year drought has been, if not broken, at least greatly reduced.
John Farley
Edwardsville, IL
