Storm chances continue in eastern New Mexico

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Well, the wind picked up again tonight, Dean. You know, this morning you mentioned it that we had that gusty wind.

[00:00:05]>> complaining. Yeah, a little bit. It's okay though. It's okay. It brought in some moisture and now we're seeing that again tonight. So, you're going to feel a little bit higher humidity here around Albuquerque and that's going to stick around early tomorrow morning before the the winds will bring in some drier weather again by tomorrow afternoon.

[00:00:20]Now, this is what it looked like at the top of the Sandias this morning. That was again that easterly wind that was spilling over the Sandias produced this cloud cover and we're seeing that again tonight. You can see actually a thunderstorm pop up to right about there right before sunset move across areas just northeast of the Sandias out towards Madrid, Cerrillos, Galisteo where they actually picked up a few hundredths of an inch of rain tonight with that thunderstorm that moved through and again right about there is where that thunderstorm was and now tonight we're socked in the cloud cover up on top of the Sandias and that moisture is spilling over once again.

[00:00:54]You did see a few showers and thunderstorms out there from far southeastern New Mexico down near Raton and then some scattered storms down in southwestern parts of the state. Most of the evaporated but did bring in some gusty winds earlier. Temperatures got into the 80s there along with here in Albuquerque but take a look at eastern New Mexico is only in the 60s and 70s today thanks to the cloud cover which is a big limiting factor in what was hoping to be a fairly active day in the eastern New Mexico but we didn't get that daytime heating to create that lift.

[00:01:21]Now, tonight it's down into the 50s and 60s out there. We're even in the 60s here in the metro, 70s in the southern parts of the state. The entire metro has dipped down into the 60s now this evening. 50s under Sandia Park and Edgewood and there's that gusty wind now up to nearly 40 mph wind gusts at the Sunport gusting to 30 in Carnuel, over 20 mph gusts up there in the heights.

[00:01:40]It's just as windy up in Santa Fe.

[00:01:43]Socorro and Tierra Seca were also getting that gap canyon wind to bring in higher dew points here into the Rio Grande Valley. It's up into the 50s in eastern New Mexico and that's when it starts to feel almost a little bit more muggy especially here in the desert.

[00:01:56]This is when it starts to feel a little bit more humid and we're starting to see dew points up into the 40s here in the Rio Grande Valley. That translates to humidity anywhere from around 40% to 60% in Santa Fe and it's as high as 75 to nearly 80% in Eastern New Mexico.

[00:02:11]Tonight, cloud cover will redevelop across Eastern New Mexico with a few showers and thunderstorms likely developing now into the eastern half of the state as we head into tomorrow afternoon and evening. That will move out by Thursday night, but we'll see another chance for rain and thunderstorms in northeastern New Mexico Friday. A better chance for rain and thunderstorms including up in the mountains Saturday, but the best chance for rain will come as we head into early next week. Now, so far this year in terms of the fire danger, it's actually better than where it was last year if you were to look at the fire outlooks.

[00:02:38]We only had a couple elevated and critical fire days in January. That expanded into February and if you remember how hot and dry March was, that was a reason why most of the days were under some kind of fire outlook and that continued into April, but May has been relatively quiet so far. Today was an elevated fire danger, but tomorrow we shouldn't see one out there at all. We had a couple extreme fire danger days out there just earlier this week, but that's only half of where we were compared to last year. We're actually sitting a few days short compared to last year, too, of fire weather outlooks and I really think that has to do with not seeing nearly as much wind as we had last year at this time. So, that's some good news so far, especially with rain on the way and it does look like we'll see the best chance for rain for many of us including up in the northwestern New Mexico and southern Colorado by early next week, especially on Tuesday. May see some isolated thunderstorms as early as Memorial Day in the southwestern parts of the state, but Tuesday still looking like that best chance for rain there. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are likely tomorrow across the eastern half of New Mexico and another chance for rain Friday. And then Saturday, we're going to be looking at scattered showers and thunderstorms returning once again, especially into the mountains and in Eastern New Mexico.

[00:03:44]But for rain into the lower elevation like Santa Fe and into the East Mountains, it's likely going to be Memorial Day and definitely next Tuesday. That's looking like our best chance for rain across much of New Mexico. Here in the metro, we're going to see pretty steady temperature-wise in the mid-80s just about every afternoon.

[00:04:00]Then as we head into this weekend, it should stay dry. We'll get very close to having a chance for rain Saturday, but it's still looking like Monday and next Tuesday are going to be our best chances for rain. All right, Chris stuff. Grant, thank you.