Summary
Sunny skies return on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday will be a transition day ahead of our next storm Friday-Saturday with winds from the west and southwest and favoring the northern mountains. Temperatures won't be optimally cold so we should see 1-5" at lower elevation mountains and 4-8" higher up above 11,000 ft. We should see a few days of dry weather after the Nov. 24-25 storm.
Short Term Forecast
Bluebird skies return to the Land of Enchantment on Tuesday and Wednesday but this will be short-lived. Clouds will start to move in on Thanksgiving Day ahead of our next storm arriving Friday afternoon from the northwest again.
The center of the storm will be positioned over Utah on Friday and then move eastward over Colorado on Saturday. The result will be predominantly west and southwest winds for the duration of the Friday-Saturday storm.
The precipitation pattern will favor the far northern mountains on Friday.
Then shift a bit further south on Saturday to get the Jemez, southern Sangres, and maybe the central mountains in on the action.
Similar to our last storm, temperatures will cool off dramatically in New Mexico compared to the lead-up days, but the coldest air will stay to our north.
The main implication for this will be the highest elevations above 11,000 ft will be favored for the greatest snowfall accumulation where lower elevations could be hampered by lower snow-to-liquid ratios.
Here is the global compilation for liquid precip.
At this stage, 3-4 days out from game time, I think we should see 1-5" at lower elevation mountains in the Jemez and Sangres, and 4-8" higher up above 11,000 ft, by the time the storm exits late Saturday.
Extended Forecast
We should see several days of dry weather starting Sunday to close out November and launch into December.
But my overall confidence in the pattern after Sunday is low as some models keep moisture in the southwest to close out November. I will take a closer look at early December in my next post on Wednesday.
Thanks for reading!
JULIEN ROSS
[email protected]
Announcements
Track incoming storms with live and forecast radar in the OpenSnow app.
1) Tap the "Maps" tab.
2) Tap the overlay button.
3) Tap "Radar" or "Forecast Radar".
4) Scrub the bottom slider.
The live "Radar" is updated every 8 minutes to help you track ongoing precipitation for the past 2 hours, while the "Forecast Radar" is updated every hour to help you track forecasted precipitation for the next 2 days.
View → OpenSnow.com/map
Opening Dates (check resort websites and social media for the latest updates):
→ Angel Fire: December 15
→ Pajarito: TBD
→ Red River: November 22
→ Sandia Peak: TBD
→ Ski Apache: TBD
→ Ski Santa Fe: November 23
→ Sipapu: OPEN Nov. 17-Nov. 26; Closed Nov. 27 – Nov. 30; Open Dec. 1-3; Closed Dec. 4-7
→ Taos: November 23
New Mexico Geography Key
Northern Mountains
→ Red River, Taos Ski Valley (north side of northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Angel Fire (northeast side of northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Sipapu (middle of the northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Ski Santa Fe (south side of the northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Pajarito (southwest side of the northern mountains - Jemez)
Central Mountains
→ Sandia Peak (Sandias)
→ Mt. Taylor backcountry (San Mateos)
Southern Mountains
→ Ski Apache (Sacramentos)
→ Ski Cloudcroft (Sacramentos)
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