Big weather changes on the way, starting with a strong cold front tonight

A strong east wind develops Tuesday evening as a cold front moves through New Mexico, bringing cooler temperatures. A fall storm system brings mountain snow, rain, and cooler temperatures into the weekend.

Big changes are coming to our weather across New Mexico, and those changes are already starting to make their way into the state. A strong backdoor front is pushing through eastern New Mexico today, and will be spilling into the Rio Grande Valley this evening. The front will bring wind gusts up to 55 mph, including in Albuquerque, before dying down tomorrow morning. Scattered showers and a few thunderstorms have also developed across western and northern New Mexico, along with the central mountain chain and southern Colorado. Some of these showers will stick around overnight, mainly in western New Mexico, as the cold front pushes through.

The cold front will bring parts of New Mexico their first freeze of the season. A Freeze Warning is in effect for the Upper Rio Grande Valley, the Estancia Valley, and the I-25 corridor from Las Vegas to Raton. High temperatures Wednesday will be left as much as 10° to 15° cooler compared to today. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will return to parts of New Mexico Wednesday afternoon as well, with some of these showers continuing into Thursday morning. Moisture will get drawn up into New Mexico Thursday, bringing more scattered showers and storms across the state. Temperatures will stay cooler than normal for most of New Mexico with the increase in cloud cover and rain chances.

Our first big fall storm system of the year moves into New Mexico Friday. Ahead of the storm, winds will pick up across the state Friday afternoon. South, southwest winds could gust as high as 45 mph. Scattered showers and storms will again be possible in parts of the state. Rain chances increase as the storm sends in a cold front Friday night. Thunderstorms and locally heavy rain could be possible along the front as it moves east across the state into Saturday morning. Temperatures will be much cooler, so snow is looking more likely down to about 9,000′ feet in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado by Saturday morning. We won’t rule out a mix of rain and snow as low as Durango and Taos Saturday morning or Sunday morning. Strong to severe storms may also be possible in northeast New Mexico Saturday afternoon, which could also drop very heavy rain. Showers, storms, and mountain snow will continue Saturday night into Sunday morning for parts of the state before drier weather starts moving in Sunday afternoon. A few inches of snow may be possible above 10,000′ in the northern mountains with up to 12″ of snow across the mountain peaks in southwest Colorado!

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