A large upper low moved through the four corners region with a 130kt jet moving into southwest New Mexico. This resulted in heavy snowfall in the higher elevations of the Gila Region and in the Sacramento Mountains.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS EPZ wrote it up.
A large upper low moved through the four corners region with a 130kt jet moving into southwest New Mexico. This resulted in heavy snowfall in the higher elevations of the Gila Region and in the Sacramento Mountains.
2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Up to 9 inches of snow was reported in Cloudcroft by the Fire Department. A COOP Observer reported 5 inches in Mountain Park.
Lookout Mountain SNOTEL site reported 13 inches of snow and the Signal Peak SNOTEL site reported 12 inches of snow. Other reports across the Gila region included 7.7 inches 3 miles west-southwest of Pinos Altos and 6.2 inches 3 miles north-northwest of Silver City from CoCoRaHS observers. Three inches was reported by a trained spotter 3 miles south-southwest of Silver City.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, December 2009
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 202397, 202394.