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Having newly arrived from NY I was somewhat surprised by last year's snows and this year's cold spells. I thought the weather here in winter was more moderate and settled, not so changeable.
That being said the welcoming features of ABQ weather are the bright sunshine on most days and the early arrival of spring (even as changeable as that can be here.) March was beautiful last year and I biked nearly every day.
To anyone familiar with the Northeast's weather the early, pleasant springs here are a nice reward. In the Northeast spring is often late in arriving; cold and rainy periods are frequent (even sometimes snowy); warm ups are erratic; dark, damp, cold days happen too often; and trees don't fully leaf out until May in a bad year.
I had no idea ABQ only gets 7-10 inches of snow! I was under the impression it was way more. Guess I was wrong! ABQ sounds like it gets enough snow to appreciate it, but not too much where it's ridiculous.
Yeah, this site lists it at 9.9 inches (including a monthly breakdown):
Albuquerque Economic Development - Regional Profile (http://www.abq.org/regional/overview.html - broken link)
This site lists it at 10.9 inches (in comparison, El Paso, TX at 5.3 - so about 5 inches more in Albuquerque, and Denver at 60.3 inches):
Average Snowfall (http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/ccd/avgsnf98.html - broken link)
I have seen listing as little as approximated 6.5 inches to as high as 11.5 inches...it really just depends partially on where you are in the city, as the Valley areas get the least, and the Heights areas a slight bit more. Once you get in higher altitude - east of Juan Tabo or Tramway, then you get more.
But yeah, snow is fairly insignificant most years in ABQ.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim
I heard about the storm you guys got last year.
Yeah, last year was crazy, but honestly, that one storm at the end of December was the biggest snowmaker in the history of weather record-keeping in Albuquerque, so it was definitely a one-in-a-hundred if not more type of a thing.
16.5 inches fell from that storm, and the reason it was hyped so much in the news and around the US even is because of how rare a snowfall like that is in Albuquerque - it had never happened in record-keeping history, and beyond that, storms even close to that magnitude have rarely ever happened.
However, even saying that as 06-07 was by far one of the snowiest years in ABQ city weather history, it still only produced about 15 inches of snow beyond the one crazy snow-maker. Still fairly darn significant for Albuquerque, but compared to the consistent blizzard-wallops that Denver kept getting hit with over and over, it was still not nearly to the magnitude of what you saw in Denver.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim
Albuquerque's summers may be a little bit hotter than Denver's, but not that much; Denver can still get plenty hot in the summer.
I would partially agree with you here, and certainly it can kind of vary year-by-year. However, overall (and I spend a lot of time in Denver in the summer due to my inlaws) Denver is still a decent amount cooler in the summer, even though it definitely gets its scorching periods too.
One thing that Denver has is a much cooler night-cool off in the summer than Albuquerque. Where ABQ gets a pronounced one too, generally it'll dip more (without monsoons) into the low-60s to low-70s range, where Denver commonly will drop into the low-50s or 60. It is a 10 degree cooldown difference.
Here are some summer average comparisons in temps:
Comparing the numbers, as you can see, May and September still would semi-qualify as "summer-like" months in Albuquerque - especially mid-to-late May and September until very late September can still be summer-warm in ABQ. Whereas in Denver, heck the average low in June is still 49. ABQ has two months that average over 90 degrees and a third at 89, where Denver never even averages one month at 90.
So it is true that Denver gets some scorchers in summer at 100+ too, but overall, Albuquerque's summers are consistently warmer / hotter than Denver's. HOWEVER, both are terribly more pleasant of course than Phoenix's by far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim
Does Albuquerque get frequent afternoon thunderstorms in the summer like Denver does?
Indeed. This really occurs from mid-July until very early September and it is part of the weather phenomena that hits the desert cities of the Southwestern US (Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, and Albuquerque) known as the "monsoon season".
This is a flow of moisture from Mexico that happens fairly reguarly / annually that supplies these cities / the regions with roughly 2/3 of its total rainfall for the entire year. Remember, Albuquerque (unlike Denver) is a desert...a desert is classified as such if it averages under 10 inches of rainfall annually (Albuquerque, like Phoenix, averages 8.5 inches per year roughly...whereas Denver averages between 15 and 20 and while is semi-arid, is not a desert).
Certainly the "monsoon" is not a comparable in many respects to its more famous "big brother" the monsoons of southern Asia, however, it is named as such because it follows a similar air/pressure flow that creates the storms.
The monsoons in Albuquerque and the region vary from year-to-year. Some years they are super-big rainmakers and occur almost each and every afternoon. Other years they are kinds of duds and don't really "kick in" all that much.
Unlike Denver's summertime thunderstorms, the Albuquerque monsoons are very predictable once they get into action. In fact, it is almost eerie to meteorolgists and residents alike how predictable they are, as typically weather isn't THAT predictable.
They GENERALLY form over the Sandia Mountains on the east in Albuquerque between noon and 3pm during this timeframe. They then come over the city around sometime between 4pm and 6pm and unleash a nice, strong thunderstorm for between 30 minutes and an hour or two. Then, it isn't at all uncommon for them to really disapate and to have very sunny, dry warm conditions again for the remainder of the evening. However, when they do happen, they usually cool off the air quite a bit. Surely from year-to-year there are variations in this (the summer of 2006 they occurred much longer many days and much more severely in quantities of rainfall), but this is kind of the general rule.
Denver's thunderstorms are more of a combo of some residual airflow from these monsoons nearby, but also more "conventional" summertime air and front patterns that affect rain/storm patterns through the heart of the US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim
Do the summer nights in ABQ cool down a lot?
As noted above, indeed they do, and that is one of the very pleasant aspects of ABQ's otherwise fairly hot summers.
Again, they do not cool down as much as Denver, but they do cool quite a bit, and especially when there are good monsoons. (Heck, I have felt many days in ABQ in July and August when it was quite hot above 90 degrees, a strong afternoon monsoon rolled through, and by the evening it almost was chilly and required a light coat)...those monsoons sometimes can knock temps down 40, 45 degrees for the evening.
People are sometimes surprised at the "summertime ABQ evening cooldown", however, really this is a common trait between all desert cities. People don't realize it, but Phoenix and Las Vegas and Tucson experience this too (although sprawling concrete heat islands prohibit it a bit). It is just that when highs are 117, 118, when lows drop to 91 or 92, you have just seen a near 30 degree temp drop, but after a day of 118, an overnight "low" of 92 doesn't really feel extremely refreshing.
The difference is that in Albuquerque, after a high of 95, that same near-30 degree temp drop can bring a low of 68...quite refreshing.
Having newly arrived from NY I was somewhat surprised by last year's snows and this year's cold spells. I thought the weather here in winter was more moderate and settled, not so changeable.
Hey Sunseeker -
You are dead-on, but remember too, you (and I and other transplants) last year survived and EXTREMELY unusual winter for Albuquerque's standards. This is a city that averages between 7 to 11 inches of snowfall ANNUALLY, and one storm alone last year brought 16.5 inches - the strongest snowmaker the city EVER received in its weather record-keeping history. Tack on the extra 15 inches that dropped, and the 30+ inch winter was by far - by far! - one of the snowiest in Albuquerque's city history.
So I think you know this, but just to encourage you, last year was a real abberation winter-wise in Albuquerque - by far the exception rather than the rule.
As for this year, I have had the (misfortune) of not having lived through Albuquerque's winter being back up here in WI. However, I track its weather nearly daily (yes, a big, big weather geek I am - and also just a daydreamer to return to that climate too) and while it stinks as a follow-up to last year's winter, this year's winter has been abnormally cold in ABQ too. Just going by average daily temps in ABQ, so many days have been much, much colder than the average / norm for an ABQ winter.
However, the bright side is that it hasn't snowed really a lick this winter in ABQ. Meanwhile, here in Milwaukee, a city that averages still a very high 55 inches of snowfall annually, we've already hit nearly 75 inches. Uugh.
Another thing to consider is that this has just been a cold winter - air-patern wise - across the whole US. Florida cities through the state felt strong freezing patterns for days, well below 30 degrees. Heck, traces of snow were seen in Florida beaches. Atlanta's had several days barely above freezing. Birmingham AL has had many nights drop into the 20s. Louisville and Memphis were having nights routinely for a while in the teens. And here in the midwest where it is always cold in the winter, it has been one of the coldest / snowiest in a long, long time.
Heck, even in Phoenix, they've had many periods that were "chilly" for their standards in winter.
And in the winter, it seems the US is affected much more so as a whole by large, sweeping air patterns and movements, (more so than in the summer when things are more regionalized)...so I am fairly certain this winter was again quite "out of the norm" (although not nearly as much as last winter) than usual in ABQ, but also in the nation.
I guess what I am trying to say so long-windedly...you'll I think experience many more winters ahead that meet your expectations a little more closely of being moderate and consistent. Two years ago on Christmas Eve it was close to 60 degrees and I was in a short sleeve shirt at the park with my daughter and golfing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQSunseeker
That being said the welcoming features of ABQ weather are the bright sunshine on most days and the early arrival of spring (even as changeable as that can be here.) March was beautiful last year and I biked nearly every day.
To anyone familiar with the Northeast's weather the early, pleasant springs here are a nice reward. In the Northeast spring is often late in arriving; cold and rainy periods are frequent (even sometimes snowy); warm ups are erratic; dark, damp, cold days happen too often; and trees don't fully leaf out until May in a bad year.
Not here though, and that makes the difference.
Totally agreed. In the northern areas, it is "April showers bring May flowers"...in Albuquerque, it is "late February/early March showers...errr...I mean, sun and some wind, bring mid-March/late-March/early April flowers!" Gotta love that six or eight weeks of early springtime!
Hey penelopelp, I moved here last month from Tampa/St Pete and today I have the front door open, enjoying the sunshine. Feels like a typical Tampa January day today here in ABQ. I understand January & Feb so far have been colder than usual for ABQ, but it's been a nice cold - crispy, like a fall day, provided you layer a bit. It's not a bone-chilling cold like it can get in more humid areas like Dallas or even the AL/MS Gulf Coast.
Yukon, It sounds wonderful! I will bring layers. We actually have pretty decent weather in Ohio today--it's around 40 and sunny. However, tomorrow's high is 10. I just hope that we can make it across the country without getting stuck in a blizzard. You never know with March!
It's interesting here - it might be 45-50 outside, but with sunshine and no humidity, it tends to feel more like 60. NICE!
You know how some areas use a heat index in the summer, or wind chill, etc. to give you a feels like temp? Maybe ABQ should use the tropical index....."today's temp will be 46, but with clear skies, full sun and -5% humidity, the tropical island index will be a toasty 65."
Wow, what another great response, EnjoyEP! I've been living in Phoenix for most of the year the last 4 years (I'm a student at ASU), but I was actually visiting back home in Denver last year when the 2 mega snowstorms hit, so I got to experience that full blast! I was also back home for a month this last winter break and it snowed about 4-5 times; not as intense as last year but still plenty of snow.
I appreciate you showing me the weather statistics. I know this might sound like a bold statement here, and not very "scientific," but I believe that the official 120 year weather data averages are inaccurate for explaining what the weather is really like. For example, "officially" the average high in Phoenix in July is 104 degrees. I can tell you that number is so far off it's unbelievable. In truth, the average July/August high is more like 108 degrees. Last summer in Phoenix the high was over 110 degrees every single day straight for over a month! Many of those days it was 112 degrees, and on July 4, it peaked out at 117 degrees! The number of days last summer in Phoenix that it dropped even below 108 degrees could be counted on one hand. And in Denver, the real, present-day average high in July/August is more like 93,94,95 degrees, not this phoney "88" number. That number is WAY off. A lot of this might have to do with global warming or climate change. On many, many days it will get to the upper 90's in Denver around noon, then afternoon thunderstorms come in and cool it off. So, having lived in Albuquerque, how hot does it REALLY get in the summer? Not based on what the data "officially" says, but on what it really is more often than not?
In terms of the cool off on summer nights, I wouldn't mind it if I was still slightly warm at night, as long as I'm not still sweating at 10:00 pm like I am in Phoenix in the summer. In Phoenix, it can still be over 100 degrees at 10:00 pm! In fact, sometimes the temperature is higher at 10:00pm than it is at 10:00am! Go figure? In Phoenix, the daytime high occurs late in the afternoon, around 6:00; whereas in most normal cities it's already cooling off a little by then. It might have something to do with the massive urban heat island effect in Phoenix.
In terms of monsoons, we experience that in Phoenix, although for some reason the monsoons seem to bypass the city. Tucson, OTOH gets the monsoon action full blast. There are many days when it is 110 in Phoenix, humid, but no rain, and 85 in Tucson and raining! Denver's storms, interestingly, are more of an early summer phenomenon-- like May and June, whereas the SW "monsoon" storm is more of a July, August, September thing.
I think I would absolutely love Albuquerque in terms of climate, landscape, and culture. I'm just not sure if it's viable career wise. Maybe it is? You'll probably see some more posts from me asking some questions on this forum.
Wow, what another great response, EnjoyEP! I've been living in Phoenix for most of the year the last 4 years (I'm a student at ASU), but I was actually visiting back home in Denver last year when the 2 mega snowstorms hit, so I got to experience that full blast! I was also back home for a month this last winter break and it snowed about 4-5 times; not as intense as last year but still plenty of snow.
I appreciate you showing me the weather statistics. I know this might sound like a bold statement here, and not very "scientific," but I believe that the official 120 year weather data averages are inaccurate for explaining what the weather is really like. For example, "officially" the average high in Phoenix in July is 104 degrees. I can tell you that number is so far off it's unbelievable. In truth, the average July/August high is more like 108 degrees. Last summer in Phoenix the high was over 110 degrees every single day straight for over a month! Many of those days it was 112 degrees, and on July 4, it peaked out at 117 degrees! The number of days last summer in Phoenix that it dropped even below 108 degrees could be counted on one hand. And in Denver, the real, present-day average high in July/August is more like 93,94,95 degrees, not this phoney "88" number. That number is WAY off. A lot of this might have to do with global warming or climate change. On many, many days it will get to the upper 90's in Denver around noon, then afternoon thunderstorms come in and cool it off. So, having lived in Albuquerque, how hot does it REALLY get in the summer? Not based on what the data "officially" says, but on what it really is more often than not?
In terms of the cool off on summer nights, I wouldn't mind it if I was still slightly warm at night, as long as I'm not still sweating at 10:00 pm like I am in Phoenix in the summer. In Phoenix, it can still be over 100 degrees at 10:00 pm! In fact, sometimes the temperature is higher at 10:00pm than it is at 10:00am! Go figure? In Phoenix, the daytime high occurs late in the afternoon, around 6:00; whereas in most normal cities it's already cooling off a little by then. It might have something to do with the massive urban heat island effect in Phoenix.
In terms of monsoons, we experience that in Phoenix, although for some reason the monsoons seem to bypass the city. Tucson, OTOH gets the monsoon action full blast. There are many days when it is 110 in Phoenix, humid, but no rain, and 85 in Tucson and raining! Denver's storms, interestingly, are more of an early summer phenomenon-- like May and June, whereas the SW "monsoon" storm is more of a July, August, September thing.
I think I would absolutely love Albuquerque in terms of climate, landscape, and culture. I'm just not sure if it's viable career wise. Maybe it is? You'll probably see some more posts from me asking some questions on this forum.
vegaspilgrim,
A big factor in the rise in average temperatures in places like Denver or Phoenix is, in fact, the "urban heat-island" effect. Pavement, dark roofs on buildings, even dark plants can raise the temperature significantly. Also, irrigation of lawns, and evaporation from swimming pools (wasting all that water that the West really doesn't have) can also raise the humidity significantly. I knew some real old-line Phoenix residents who had lived there since the 1930's. They related that until the 1960's, swamp coolers were quite sufficient for cooling in Phoenix because the outside humidity was easily low enough for them to be effective. Now (as you undoubtedly know first-hand, I'm sure) mechanical air conditioning is a necessity there because Phoenix is much more humid and temperatures do not drop that much at night.
You are absolutely correct about the difference between Denver and Phoenix or Albuquerque concerning the Southwest Monsoon. Denver is less affected by the monsoon and more by the westward expansion of the Bermuda High in late spring and early summer (which does, in fact, itself contribute to the SW monsoon when it reaches its fullest expansion and westward movement later in the summer).
One of the most interesting areas of the region for summer storm weather is in northeastern New Mexico just east of the Sangre De Cristo mountains (i.e., Raton, Cimmaron, Las Vegas, etc.). That area is one of the most active thunderstorm areas in the western US because it is far enough east and south to be affected by the late spring and early summer "fetch" of Gulf of Mexico moisture, and its is far enough west and south to be affected by the SW monsoon, as well. Some of the neatest thunderstorm weather I've seen has been around Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Albuquerque does get regular SW monsoon thunderstorms, but they tend to be of shorter duration and lighter moisture than many areas of Colorado or New Mexico because of the local geography around Albuquerque. As for Albuquerque's climate, I have found it to be too dry and bland for most of the year for it to suit my tastes. Summers there are also hotter than I would like. As for Phoenix--no way, never.
And, quite frankly, anyone who complains incessantly about cold and snow in most any metro area in the Rocky Mountain West south of Montana (Denver, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, etc.) has probably never lived where there is REAL winter. Spend a winter in Fargo, Minneapolis, Rochester, Syracuse, or any other number of places in the northern tier of states in the US--that's real winter.
PS--As always, vegaspilgrim, you write quite well. That should serve you very well when you are out in the work force.
How hard is it to adjust to the dry climate in ABQ? That's interesting info about arid vs semi-arid. I thought that I had read that ABQ was semi-arid. I have lived in a semi-arid climate in Calif. Our annual rainfall ave. was supposed to be about 13 inches. We didn't get any snow where we were. Dayton can get pretty humid, although not near what is was like when I lived in Florida.
Thanks for your response, jazzlover. I appreciate the compliment! Personally, I think I'm more of a desert southwest type than an alpine "mountain man" type. Ever since I was a little kid going on family road trips throughout the southwest, I've always loved desert landscapes. The thing is, even by the standards of the desert southwest, the heat in Phoenix is just plain barbaric. Even Tucson, just 100 miles SE, can be dramatically more comfortable, especially during the monsoon season. The Sonoran Desert can be extremely colorful, especially during this time of year. It's been raining a lot the last two months, and right now there is actually grass growing in the desert! The mountains around Phoenix have a greenish tinge to them right now. The temperatures are in now in the mid 70s. It's a great time of year to be in Phoenix. Within the next month there should be a desert bloom with flowers everywhere. Unfortunately, it's not going to last; just a few more months and this place will resemble a blast furnace. There's heat, and then there's extreme heat. I also love the "high desert" of the Colorado Plateau with the pinion-juniper vegetation. Bringing this discussion back to ABQ, what kind of native vegetation is prominent in the Albuquerque area? Is ABQ considered part of the Chihuahuan desert?
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In Phoenix, the daytime high occurs late in the afternoon, around 6:00; whereas in most normal cities it's already cooling off a little by then. It might have something to do with the massive urban heat island effect in Phoenix.
