More rain, snow predicted for weekend
Meteorologist: Drought not over

Had Enough?: Snow falls Thursday as a pick-up truck driver guides his vehicle around the outskirts of a mud-pit that used to be the main road at Smooth Rock Road near Rock Springs, N.M. More rain and snow is forecast through Sunday, meaning that the muddy mess will only get worse. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

By Jim Tiffin
Staff Writer

GRANTS — A slow-moving winter storm dropped more than an inch of snow on Gallup and Grants in the past 24 hours and is expected to linger through Sunday, the National Weather Service says.

Chuck Jones, a meteorologist at the weather service says this is the wettest start to a calendar year since 1971.

Whether the lengthy New Mexico drought is over yet, a question that is on everyone's minds in northwestern New Mexico no it isn't.

"The drought on the eastern side of the state, on the plains, is pretty much over," Jones says.

"And in Northwestern New Mexico it is still here, but it has improved from severe to moderate and mild," he says.

"If it keeps (snowing) and raining the drought will get better but we can't really say, it depends on how it falls and storms through the spring," Jones says.

The storm coming through the area may be linked to a weak El Nino system that is warming the Pacific waters that move north, creating more moisture in the atmosphere, breeding more storms, bringing more rain, Jones says.

El Ninos, and La Nina, where Pacific waters cool and create less moisture, storms and rain, are cyclical. The part of the cycle we are now in is the El Nino, which developed last fall, Jones says.

No one is sure why the Pacific's waters do that, he says, they just do.

The current storm is the one that moved through Southern California dropping 10 inches on that area last weekend.

Record rainfall occurred years ago in both Gallup and Grants. Both areas are not really close to matching those records however, Jones says,

In Gallup, the record precipitation for February is 4.65 inches, set in 1980. So far this month, the precipitation is 3.03 inches.

In Grants, the record for February is 3.06 inches, set in 1993; however, Grants is only at 2.13 inches so far this month.

"The storm above the Gallup-Grants area is expected to stay in the area moving slowly eastward and becoming weaker through Sunday," Jones says.

"There will be scattered snow showers and rainfall with the dividing line about 6,500 feet," he said. "Except at night, then it will be all snow showers."

Jones says the next three months, March through May, will probably see higher rainfall. Then for the next year, higher temperatures as well, meaning a wetter, warmer spring, fall, summer and winter through May of 2006.

There is a public telephone line where people can call and get weather information, it is (505) 243-0702.

The Web site for those with Internet capability is: www. srh.noaa.gov.abq.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin@blackmesa-isp.net.