Warmer & Windier Before New Mexico Cold Air Blast 1-17-2025

For more New Mexico weather…check here on www.krqe.com/w.... To replay KRQE News 13’s on-air TV shows, check here on www.krqe.com/l.... Morning Meteorologist Ryan DePhillips has a look at the weather ahead. Snow was lightly falling in the Jemez Mountains to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the San Mateo Mountains, the Gila National Forest, and the Sierra Blanca Range, as well as light precipitation earlier from the Mimbres Valley to the southern Rio Grande Valley, with light rain exiting earlier in Southeast New Mexico. Cold air was present, but it was once again not as cold as the morning before. Temperatures for most, but not all, were below freezing, with more-persistent westerly winds making it feel a bit colder earlier, but temperatures will continue to rise today for most before our next wintry pattern change with stronger winds during the transition. Lower pressure aloft with more upper-level moisture, as well as more-different temperatures aloft from north to south, was leading to the somewhat-gusty showers of precipitation this morning with more clouds, but skies are now mostly clear. Along with near-to-above-normal morning temperatures in the East Highlands through the East Plains to the Pecos River Valley, contrasting with the near-to-slightly-below-normal morning temperatures elsewhere, everywhere else was slightly starting off milder than yesterday with the westerly winds down the east slopes of the mountains, mixing the air around while the air descends, creating that warmer effect, as well as more clouds absorbing more of yesterdays' warmth in the form infrared radiation from escaping into space. Air temperatures, while rising rapidly in the dustier areas to the south, were as low as on either side of zero degrees in parts of the San Luis Valley, but most areas are starting in the teens, 20s, 30s, and low 40s. With the lower humidity with the stronger westerly winds, potentially damaging along the east-sloped areas south of I-40, the fire threat is higher with blowing snow in the mountains likely as well as more-widespread blowing dust that is already being observed. Throughout the afternoon, temperatures will reach into the high 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s from west-northwest to east-southeast from high to low elevation. Wintry weather in the form of snow will then develop overnight in the far-Northeast Highlands, signaling gusty cold front number one moving through the eastern majority of the region later tomorrow, before another reinforcing shot of colder air arrives early next week with little snow, but with even lower air temperatures, the coldest of the season for some northeastern areas, with northerly winds resulting in life-threatening winds chills for many northern-mountain community areas from the San Juan Mountains to the east especially.