What are Albuquerque,New Mexico winters like compared to Denver,CO or Lubbock and Amarillo,Texas? T

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

ABQ is cold in winter, especially at night. Daytime temps are decently mild, but not "warm" by any means. Winter nights are frigid. With all that being said, its far more liveable than Denver's winters, IMO. Its warmer, snows less, has more sun, and the winter doesnt last nearly as long as Denver's.

To add to that, Denver's summers can be just as hot, if not hotter at times as ABQ.

The mid day sun in February in ABQ feels nice and balmy, you can shed your jacket for a few hours out of the day. But yeah, night time temps get down right frigid and they drop very rapidly when the sun goes down.

[ABQalex]

It can snow a lot in Albuquerque, but that seems to occur about once a decade. The last time was at the very end of 2006 and before that in mid-December 1992. The 1970s were a really snowy and cold decade for Albuquerque, so consecutive years with heavy snowfall and seeing below zero (Fahrenheit) temps are not out of the question for Albuquerque. The last time we had really frigid temperatures was in February 2011 when we got into single digits for lows. Certain areas of the city and metro also get much more snow on average than the official recording station at the airport. The Foothills neighborhoods and East Mountains suburbs can get from 1.5 to 2.5 times more yearly snowfall on average than the official 11 inches at the Sunport. The least snow usually occurs in the Valencia County suburbs like Los Lunas, which only averages 2 inches of snow a year.

I personally love snow and cold weather and so the fact that Albuquerque always sees snow each winter and can get fairly cold is a plus to me. It usually snows in good amounts (1-3 inches) about 2-3 times a year and in lighter amounts (trace amounts to light dustings) on about 6-10 more occasions each year.

Summer is my least favorite season and time of year in Albuquerque. We had a heatwave for most of the summer that produced 5 or 6 days of triple digit temps and many more days of high 90s than we usually see in summer. The monsoon hasn't been that great, but it has rained fairly often, just not in huge downpours like we usually see about 1-3 times a year during our monsoons. Again, certain areas of the city have seen those big downpours, just not the official recording station at the airport. It rained in Albuquerque earlier this evening and I loved it. We had been seeing a return to above-average temps the last few days with highs ranging from 87-91 when our average high for this time of year is 85 degrees. In the weeks before that we had been having below average temps (with a few days in the 70s for highs) since the heatwave ended at the end of July.

[Weatherguy]

Seems to me that ABQ has one of the best climates of any U.S. city. Four seasons, low humidity, some snow, mild summers with reliably cool nights even in summer.

Lubbock and Amarillo, being in the Texas Panhandle, can have truly brutal winter weather, with several blizzards each winter and bone chilling temperatures (although it can also be quite mild at times). There's no way I could handle that. Summers in the Panhandle are pretty nice, though.

I've been to Midland a lot. I've seen it snow pretty heavily, but have also seen very nice winter weather.

Overall, ABQ has the most ideal climate. But that's my opinion. Others have different ideas about what ideal is.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

ABQ is cold in winter, especially at night. Daytime temps are decently mild, but not "warm" by any means. Winter nights are frigid. With all that being said, its far more liveable than Denver's winters, IMO. Its warmer, snows less, has more sun, and the winter doesnt last nearly as long as Denver's.

I think I can handle frigid nights.Mild days sound nice.Thanks for your input, BIG CATS.

[BMI]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

Prescott is actually a bit warmer in the winter than Albuquerque but has about 2 and a half times the amount of snow. The nice thing about being at altitude in the winter is you get more radiant heat from the sun than you do at lower elevations.

I'll agree on Albuquerque being slightly colder than Prescott.

Albuquerque is a much larger city than Prescott and has many micro
climates.

Albuquerque Airport (actually called "Sunport" ) is strange as it's highs are
somewhat lower than many other areas of the city, because the "official"
climate data is from the airport, a slightly misleading impression of
ABQ being colder than it is. For example, people will see the average december
and january highs and state that Albuquerque is not much warmer than Denver
in winter, completely ignoring the average "lows". climate data is closer to Prescott, AZ,
but drier and warmer.
Downtown Albuquerque has warmer average highs with cooler lows than
at the Airport, more like Prescott, AZ.

Denver gets those relatively mild looking winter average highs from occasional chinooks,
Skewing the averages higher.

Denver climate is much more irratic, wild swings of temperature,
Albuquerque is much more stable. Averages don't give the whole picture.

Denver is in gardening zone 5b to 6a....Albuquerque is in zones 7a-7b,
some cold hardy palms can grow in ABQ.

Extremes are: -29F / 105F for Denver ....-17F / 105F for Albuquerque.
Average annual precipitation: Denver 14 inches ...Albuquerque 9 inches
Average annual snowfall: Albuquerque 10 inches.....Denver 60 inches

Comparing Prescott, Arizona with Albuquerque....
Average annual precipitation: Prescott 18 inches ....ABQ 9 inches
Average annual snowfall: Prescott 13 inches ....ABQ 10 inches
Extremes: -21 / 105 Prescott...-17 / 105 Albuquerque

PRESCOTT....ALBUQUERQUE...DENVER .....ALBUQUERQUE (downtown)

52/24... JAN....47/26......JAN...44/17.....JAN.....51/23
55/26....FEB....53/30......FEB...46/19.....FEB.....56/26
60/31....MAR...61/36......MAR...54/26....MAR....64/34
67/37... APR....69/43.....APR...,62/33....APR....73/40
76/45....MAY...79/53......MAY...72/43....MAY....82/50
86/53....JUN....88/62.....JUN....82/52....JUN.....92/58
89/60.. .JUL....90/66.....JUL.....89/59....JUL.....95/63
86/59.. .AUG..87/65......AUG... 87/58... AUG....92/62
81/51... SEP...81/58.....SEP.....79/48....SEP.....85/55
71/40....OCT...69/46....OCT.....65/37...,OCT....73/43
61/30....NOV..56/34.....NOV.,, 52/35....NOV....60/31
52/23....DEC...46/27....DEC.....43/17... DEC....50/24

Overall I like Albuquerque's climate best, within the city you can choose
what micro climate you prefer.
Want heat and very little snow, live in the lowest areas in the valley,
prefer cooler temps and more snow, foothills of Sandias gives you that.

[ABQalex]

The Sunport is actually a good middle ground and representative for the city since it has average temperatures that are usually almost exactly the same as the Heights, which makes up the majority of the city. And it is in the middle between the hotter valley areas and cooler foothills areas for highs in the summer. In the winter it's usually the opposite with the valley having colder lows than the foothills.

The main drawback to the Sunport is that it is probably the least rainy and snowy area of the city. Rio Rancho, tge Westside, Valley and mid-Heights usually see the most rain, and the Foothills, Heights and Westside usually see the most snow. Just recently the Sunport finally recorded a single substantial rainfall, with .59 inches falling. However, areas in the Heights like San Mateo and Central had 1.50 inches of rain fall during that same shower. In July the disparity was even worse during one rain storm when Montgomery and San Mateo recorded 2.5 inches of rain and the Sunport only recorded a trace.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by Weatherguy

Seems to me that ABQ has one of the best climates of any U.S. city. Four seasons, low humidity, some snow, mild summers with reliably cool nights even in summer.

Lubbock and Amarillo, being in the Texas Panhandle, can have truly brutal winter weather, with several blizzards each winter and bone chilling temperatures (although it can also be quite mild at times). There's no way I could handle that. Summers in the Panhandle are pretty nice, though.

I've been to Midland a lot. I've seen it snow pretty heavily, but have also seen very nice winter weather.

Overall, ABQ has the most ideal climate. But that's my opinion. Others have different ideas about what ideal is.

wow thanks for telling me that because that makes me think I can handle ABQ's winters since I could handle Lubbock's.Sorry it took so long for me to get back with you.I agree that Albuquerque has a good climate.Midland does have nice winter weather most of the time.
-WT