An active weather period started out 2016 after a brief break behind the historic blizzard event from late December 2015. A very active and moist Pacific jet stream provided a wave train of winter storms over the western United States.
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 ABQ wrote it up.
An active weather period started out 2016 after a brief break behind the historic blizzard event from late December 2015. A very active and moist Pacific jet stream provided a wave train of winter storms over the western United States. The first system to impact New Mexico moved quickly over the state on the 1st followed by a more widespread event on the 4th and 5th. Both of these events produced generally nuisance impacts across central and western New Mexico. The next storm system on the 6th and 7th produced the most widespread snowfall of the three and notably the greater impacts as temperatures trended much colder. The hardest hit area was the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Upper Rio Grande valley. The high terrain east of Santa Fe picked up 10 to 18 inches of fresh snow and folks from near Taos south to La Madera and Abiquiu picked up 3 to 7 inches. Significant impacts to travel and school closures were noted around parts of this area.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Albuquerque, NM wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 6, 4:47 AM MST, 4 hours 13 minutes earlier.
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</html>2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
SNOTEL and ski sites over the area picked up between 10 and 18 inches of fresh snow. The heaviest snowfall occurred during the early morning hours of the 7th.
Numerous sources across the Taos region reported 3 to 6 inches of snow, the heaviest of which occurred late on the 6th. Significant impacts to travel and some closures were noted.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, January 2016
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: 607531, 607532.