Temperature/ Precipitation

Drought Status

Fire Weather

Hydrology

Records and Extremes

Special Features

Drought in New Mexico in 2006

Both long and short-term drought conditions worsened over New Mexico during the first half of the year. The short-term drought that began in late October, 2005 quickly got worse as the first month of 2006 was the 10th driest January of the past 112 years (See Table 1 at the end of this document). February precipitation was only 15 percent of normal for New Mexico, ranking it the 3rd driest February in 112 years. March was a bit wetter, but April and May were both in the top 25 driest since 1895.

By late June, New Mexico was suffering through its 2nd driest year since 1895, and both the short and long-term drought conditions had become extreme. However, as predicted, the summer thunderstorm season arrived a little early, and it appeared as if the faucet turned on around the 25th of June. Rainfall the last 6 days of June brought the monthly average up to 96 percent of normal.

After a brief lull in the action during the first week in July, a persistent pattern that funneled abundant moisture from north to south into New Mexico developed. July was wetter than normal. In August 2006, a remarkably persistent monsoon circulation was in place resulting in the wettest August in the past 112 years. The July-August average precipitation for New Mexico was over 160 percent of normal, and was the wettest July-August combination since 1895.

However, weather tends to exhibit considerable variability in the Southwest region of the country, and the moisture once again “shut off” around mid-October. The October 15 to December 15 period was the 2nd driest period in the past 132 years in Santa Fe, and the 2nd driest in the past 75 years in Albuquerque. Short-term dryness became more apparent during the first half of December, but the storm track finally changed and 2 major snow storms favored New Mexico during the latter half of the month, and portions of northern and eastern New Mexico finished the month with well-above average precipitation.

New Mexico received approximately 115 to 120 percent of the normal annual precipitation in 2006. As a result, drought conditions were far less prevalent at the end of the year than at the beginning. By the year’s end, the state was left with some lingering long-term drought over the northern counties that can only be ameliorated with a very substantial snow pack and heavy spring snow melt and runoff. Elephant Butte provides a good example of the consequences of the long-term drought situation. Storage at Elephant Butte Reservoir was 134 percent of normal in early 2000. After dropping to near 5 percent at times from 2003-2006, the heavy precipitation in 2006 brought the storage back up to about 39 percent of normal by the end of the year. While the improvement has been significant, Elephant Butte is still “down” nearly one entire storage system since early 2000. However, by the end of December, percent of normal snowpack had doubled (from the early December values) across the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez mountains, reaching between 110 and 120 percent of normal. Across other areas of the state, the snow pack remained below 100 percent of normal.

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