Mostly dry weather with hazy conditions around New Mexico

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Thunderstorms yesterday, including in parts of Albuquerque, have since dissipated entirely this morning with only a few leftover clouds and more-humid air with near-normal temperatures. Despite some of yesterday’s storms having mixed the haze around with gusty winds, air quality is still slightly worse than normal with patchy areas of poor visibility in the Northern Mountains. This is courtesy of western U.S. wildfire smoke high up in the atmosphere that is settling to near the surface in New Mexico from around the clockwise-circulating Monsoon high pressure system in the Great Basin. Easterly winds for the most part, albeit light, are drifting some of that settled smoke to the west. At the same time, this has allowed for low-level tropical moisture to still remain in place.

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Temperatures are slightly higher this morning despite starting off near or below normal for many with temperatures primarily in the high 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s for most of the northern mountain communities, while most valley locations are ranging from the high 50’s to the low 70’s. As temperatures rise into the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s across the region, lingering moisture in the air, with the daytime heating, may still lead to more pockets of rainfall, especially in the Gila National Forest once again and from the mountain ranges of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Sacramento Mountains. Burn-scar flash flooding will be possible in the northern mountains especially, slightly more likely than yesterday. A few of the thunderstorms may initially be slow-moving as they form early this afternoon around the burn scars of Santa Fe and also Ruidoso, but then, the storms may strengthen while speeding up to the south-southwest this afternoon across a small portion of the Rio Grande Valley eventually. Very localized pockets of heavy rain, small hail, strong winds, and some lightning strikes will be more likely with the storms in the short term.

While most will remain relatively dry and very warm today, the monsoon high pressure will start to creep back slightly closer to the southeast tomorrow, bringing in more moisture back to the region while funneling in more near-surface tropical moisture from the south. This wetter trend will be brief as temperatures will remain above normal, especially as things dry out once again later this weekend. Pockets of smoky skies for some with relatively poor air quality and pockets of low visibility are still possible with these changes ahead despite some improvements.

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