West winds increased across central and western NM during the day on February 11th ahead and south of a shortwave trough moving southeast across the northern and central Rockies. Daytime mixing tapped into stronger southwest to west winds aloft resulting a period of high wind gusts at Sierra Blanca Regional Airport and Gallup Municipal Airport during the early afternoon.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
West winds increased across central and western NM during the day on February 11th ahead and south of a shortwave trough moving southeast across the northern and central Rockies. Daytime mixing tapped into stronger southwest to west winds aloft resulting a period of high wind gusts at Sierra Blanca Regional Airport and Gallup Municipal Airport during the early afternoon. Winds remained gusty during the evening with some light snow across the northern mountains as the Pacific cold front swept through the region before tapering off late overnight. West winds ramped up again across western and central NM during the day February 12th due to daytime mixing tapping into stronger mid and upper level westerly flow at the base of a larger scale trough over the Intermountain West. A brief high wind gust was observed at Las Vegas Municipal Airport during the mid afternoon. This round of gusty west winds across western and central NM tapered off just after sunset.
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 Feb 11, 11:10 AM MST, 1 hour 20 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Albuquerque NM 1110 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 ...New UPDATE, AVIATION... .KEY MESSAGES... Updated at 1110 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 - Colder, more February-like, temperatures continue for eastern NM before spreading to more of central and western NM Tuesday and Wednesday. Snow is also possible across northern areas, with potential for light to moderate accumulations of generally 2 to 6 inches in the northern mountains with isolated higher amounts of 6 to 8 inches above 10,000 feet. - Freezing drizzle may create slick driving conditions for parts of the eastern plains this afternoon and evening, mainly for areas along I-40 and northward. - Strong southwest winds over western NM Tuesday will become more widespread from the northwest on Wednesday. Travel may be difficult for large and high-profile vehicles. - A stronger storm system will impact NM late this week with more widespread rain and high elevation snow over western and central areas of the state. The potential for wet and slick travel will increase, particularly in the higher elevations. && .UPDATE... Issued at 1110 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 Areas of freezing fog with visibility as low as a quarter of a mile continue at Raton and Las Vegas. Freezing fog advisory has been extended until 1 PM MST. Southwest winds should help the freezing fog across the northeast highlands burn off by then. && .SYNOPSIS... Issued at 321 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 More light winter precipitation for the northern mountains and breezy conditions for western and central New Mexico later this afternoon. Meanwhile, a backdoor front will push through the eastern plains, creating a mix of wintery precipitation for areas mainly north of I-40. In terms of snowfall, the peaks of the Sangres and Tusas Mountains could see up to 8 inches, surrounding lower elevation areas could get a dusting to an inch through Wednesday. The western mountains could see a couple of inches as well. A lull in the weather on Thursday will allow for the sky to clear along eastern New Mexico and for temperatures to rebound slightly. The next winter system will begin to impact western New Mexico on Thursday night and looks to bring widespread precipitation into central New Mexico. This is looking like the wettest system since the early November storm, bringing much needed rain and snow to many areas that have been abnormally dry this winter. && .SHORT TERM... (Today through Wednesday) Issued at 321 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 While overall weather impacts are expected to be low today through Wednesday, it is still a messy forecast for quite a few variables. The westerly jet aloft will sag a bit, turning more west southwest with 700 mb wind speeds ranging between about 30-45 kt over NM today. With one more day of above normal temperatures in western and central NM today, vertical mixing heights will also rise higher than normally expected for mid February, and this will allow fairly widespread breezy to windy conditions to develop into the afternoon. Western zones along the AZ border will observe the strongest speeds with gusts occasionally reaching or briefly exceeding 40-45 mph. The flow aloft will also be turning more perturbed with upstream shortwave troughs moving in late today and into tonight, mostly over CO and northern NM. This will introduce some additional lift in addition to orographical forcing from the stiff west southwest flow, and the northern mountains will start to see periods of light snow increase and turn moderate at times through the late afternoon, particularly over the Tusas/San Juans and Sangre de Cristos. In the eastern plains and along the east slopes, the whole forecast will be a challenge, as the backdoor front placement will dictate a slew of sensible weather elements. The NAM, and to a lesser extent most CAM’s, are much more invasive, carrying the front farther west and keeping it closer to a AXX-CQC-ROW line, whereas the GFS and other global/synoptic models are much farther east with the front’s placement by late today. This will have huge implications on low stratus behind/east of the boundary, and also temperatures and wind direction. Based on the NAM’s past experiences to usually outperform other boundary layer front progressions, today’s forecast has been largely steered that direction. This will keep low clouds, colder temperatures, and some drizzle/freezing drizzle and other light mixed precip at play in many eastern zones through the afternoon before dwindling eastward overnight. Snow in the northern mountains should peak in intensity this evening before fading and diminishing after midnight. Snow totals in the Sangre de Cristos and Tusas/San Juans will generally range between 2 to 6 inches with isolated peaks above 10,000ft getting 6 to 9 inches, so a Winter Weather Advisory will be issued for today and tonight. The trough aloft will have its axis crossing central CO and NM late tonight and early Wednesday morning. This will make tonight’s low temperatures challenging as well, given westerly winds will be slow to fully decouple in all areas before the Pacific front sweeps in and introduces cold air advection. While the primary shortwave of interest will be translating eastward into the plains Wednesday morning, additional subtle perturbations will dip farther south clipping near and south of I-40 into the afternoon. This will introduce fleeting isolated to scattered showers over east central AZ to west central NM and some surrounding areas. Overall QPF looks to be light and generally less than a tenth of an inch with low impacts, but a few isolated locales should not be surprised to get a sudden dusting of graupel/snow in west central to southwestern zones Wednesday. Temperatures will also stay below normal Wednesday behind the Pacific front, and the far northeastern plains will turn even colder as the next backdoor segment of the front bulls its way in. && .LONG TERM... (Wednesday night through Monday) Issued at 321 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 As night rolls around, the trough axis for Wednesday's system will be making its way through the Great Plains and pushing down another backdoor cold front for the eastern plains. As a result, low temperatures on Thursday morning will be 10 to 20 degrees below average for eastern New Mexico, while western and central New Mexico will be between 5 and 15 below normal for this time of year. However, weak upper level ridging will create a brief lull in the weather and raise temperatures nearly 10 degrees higher than the previous day for western areas. Temperatures in central New Mexico will rebound back to near normal, while temperatures in eastern New mexico will still be 5 to 10 below normal. All attention then turns to the next winter system approaching from the west on Friday. Invigorated with ample Pacific moisture, this is looking to be one of the wettest storms since the November system earlier this season for western and central New Mexico. As mentioned in the previous discussion, precipitable water content associated with this system looks to be well above average for this time of year. Model soundings indicate PWATs between 0.3 and 0.5 inches for late Friday, which according to local sounding climatology would rank in the 90th percentile. Six hour QPFs have remained steady for the highest precip areas in the forecast (Tusas mountains and surrounding areas along the NM-CO border) but elsewhere in western and central New Mexico QPF has trended up by a couple hundredths of an inch. The polar jet will make a deep dive into the Desert Southwest along with this system, bringing in another round of gusty winds on Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. But this time winds will be oriented more SW, with the strongest gusts over the southern mountains and over the northeast quadrant of the state as a lee-side 1000mb sfc low develops in southern Colorado. With the left exit region of the jet streak over north-central New Mexico on Saturday, this could lead to some increased divergence aloft and some greater precip totals. However, in terms of winter impacts, highest confidence will be over the Tusas mountains where, several inches of snowfall look likely (90% chance of greater than 8 inches of snowfall in a 24 hour period). Elsewhere, temperatures will be relatively warm for February, so aside from the higher elevation areas, precipitation is forecast to be mostly rain, transitioning to snow during the cooler nighttime hours. After the Friday-Saturday system, the weather clears for most of the state and temperatures warm back up as ridging begins to build back into the area to begin the next week. && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1110 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 LIFR conditions from freezing fog look to continue across the far northeast and northeast highlands, including KLVS and KRTN. Freezing fog should burn off at around 20Z with improving VFR conditions at that point. IFR to MVFR conditions from low clouds and patchy freezing drizzle across the eastern plains should improve to VFR conditions this afternoon and winds become more southerly. Elsewhere, gusty southwest to west winds across western and central NM this afternoon and evening as a Pacific front sweeps through the region Wind gusts of up to 35 kts possible. Right now, winds are just shy of Airport Weather Warning criteria for KABQ, but one might need to be issued later this afternoon. Southwest and west winds remain gusty after sunset. The backdoor front and low clouds/MVFR to IFR conditions in it's wake could sneak back west into KTCC after sunset before the Pacific front pushes it back east. West winds look to taper off briefly around sunrise Wednesday before ramping up once again at the end of the TAF period. Finally, snow will develop across the north central mountains later this afternoon peaking through the evening and overnight hours resulting in IFR conditions and mountain obscurations. Snow should taper off around daybreak. && .FIRE WEATHER... Issued at 321 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025 Western and central NM will observe above normal temperatures one more time today while eastern areas drop farther below with cloudy, drizzly, and damp conditions due to a strong backdoor cold front. Breezy to windy conditions will also impact western and central NM this afternoon with the strongest speeds found along the AZ-NM border where gusts will occasionally reach 40-45 mph. Humidity will bottom out around 12-19 percent in many of these western and central zones, introducing marginal or spotty critical conditions. No Red Flag Warning is planned, given the marginal humidity values, and the bigger threat will reside south of the forecast area into southern NM. The remainder of the week will be characterized by bouts of cooler temperatures and even some wintry precipitation as upper level disturbances and associated cold fronts sweep in. The periodic temperature drops will effectively boost humidity values, and many locations within western and north central NM will have an opportunity for soaking rainfall (a tenth of an inch of liquid equivalent or more), especially Friday into Friday night. The weather does turn drier Sunday into Monday of next week, and for now some breezy, but not critical conditions, are forecast. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Farmington...................... 54 20 40 10 / 10 30 10 10 Dulce........................... 47 11 35 0 / 40 80 20 10 Cuba............................ 50 17 38 8 / 30 50 20 20 Gallup.......................... 54 16 43 6 / 5 20 20 20 El Morro........................ 51 20 39 17 / 5 20 30 40 Grants.......................... 56 19 44 9 / 5 10 20 20 Quemado......................... 54 22 43 17 / 5 5 30 30 Magdalena....................... 56 26 47 24 / 5 0 10 10 Datil........................... 52 24 43 20 / 0 0 20 20 Reserve......................... 57 20 46 12 / 5 5 30 30 Glenwood........................ 61 28 48 24 / 5 10 30 30 Chama........................... 39 8 27 1 / 50 80 20 10 Los Alamos...................... 46 24 39 17 / 30 40 10 20 Pecos........................... 45 21 38 14 / 30 40 20 20 Cerro/Questa.................... 43 17 31 8 / 50 70 20 10 Red River....................... 38 10 25 6 / 60 80 20 20 Angel Fire...................... 41 11 28 -4 / 50 80 20 20 Taos............................ 47 17 36 3 / 40 70 10 10 Mora............................ 45 18 37 10 / 30 50 10 10 Espanola........................ 54 22 45 12 / 30 40 10 10 Santa Fe........................ 50 24 41 16 / 30 50 20 20 Santa Fe Airport................ 54 23 45 14 / 20 40 10 20 Albuquerque Foothills........... 59 30 47 28 / 20 10 20 20 Albuquerque Heights............. 61 32 49 24 / 10 10 10 10 Albuquerque Valley.............. 63 25 51 19 / 10 10 10 10 Albuquerque West Mesa........... 61 30 49 23 / 10 20 10 10 Belen........................... 65 28 55 20 / 10 5 10 10 Bernalillo...................... 60 28 49 20 / 10 20 10 10 Bosque Farms.................... 63 25 52 17 / 10 10 10 10 Corrales........................ 61 28 50 20 / 10 20 10 10 Los Lunas....................... 64 27 53 18 / 10 5 10 10 Placitas........................ 57 29 46 24 / 20 20 10 20 Rio Rancho...................... 60 29 49 23 / 10 20 10 10 Socorro......................... 66 30 57 26 / 10 0 10 5 Sandia Park/Cedar Crest......... 52 25 42 20 / 20 20 20 20 Tijeras......................... 54 27 44 22 / 20 10 10 20 Edgewood........................ 53 25 43 19 / 20 10 10 10 Moriarty/Estancia............... 56 23 45 12 / 20 10 10 10 Clines Corners.................. 48 23 40 14 / 20 10 10 10 Mountainair..................... 55 26 46 21 / 10 5 10 10 Gran Quivira.................... 55 27 46 21 / 10 5 10 10 Carrizozo....................... 59 32 50 27 / 10 5 10 10 Ruidoso......................... 53 30 44 26 / 10 0 5 10 Capulin......................... 34 10 24 2 / 20 60 20 5 Raton........................... 37 16 32 3 / 20 70 20 5 Springer........................ 42 20 39 4 / 20 50 5 5 Las Vegas....................... 41 22 41 10 / 20 40 10 10 Clayton......................... 32 14 25 5 / 20 60 30 5 Roy............................. 34 22 38 5 / 20 40 5 5 Conchas......................... 42 27 47 11 / 20 30 5 10 Santa Rosa...................... 41 29 50 13 / 20 20 0 10 Tucumcari....................... 41 26 42 10 / 20 30 0 10 Clovis.......................... 43 30 48 15 / 20 20 0 10 Portales........................ 44 30 51 13 / 20 20 0 10 Fort Sumner..................... 47 28 53 14 / 20 10 0 10 Roswell......................... 59 34 63 29 / 10 5 0 0 Picacho......................... 64 35 55 25 / 5 0 0 0 Elk............................. 61 34 52 27 / 5 0 0 0 && .ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Winter Weather Advisory until 5 AM MST Wednesday for NMZ210-213- 214. Freezing Fog Advisory until 1 PM MST this afternoon for NMZ227>229. && SHORT TERM...52 LONG TERM....25 AVIATION...71
Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Albuquerque NM
855 AM MST Tue Feb 11 2025
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0523 AM Snow 7 E Chupadero 35.79N 105.80W
02/11/2025 M2.0 Inch Santa Fe NM Public
Ski Santa Fe.
&&
MAAThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
High winds gusts of up to 60 mph were observed at Gallup Municipal Airport.
High winds gusts of up to 61 mph were observed at Sierra Blanca Regional Airport.
A brief high wind gust of 58 mph was observed at Las Vegas Municipal Airport.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New Mexico in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyWarnings in New Mexico, February 2025
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 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1226975, 1226976, 1226977.