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New Mexico Wind is normal in the spring. You will either get used to it or hate it. But it to will pass. I am in Alamogordo and am used to the wind.
Enjoy Carazozo.
Jane
I am so in love with Carrizozo, lucky you to be moving out that way! Just did a road trip through there a couple weeks back on my way to White Sands. Next time I am going to spend more time in that town!
One of the guys my DH works with is developing a community out there so it looks like that town is going to start seeing some major growth.
I also think the wind is a "Spring" thing in NM. DH has a "plastic" garage...LOL or a tarp garage over a metal frame and every time the wind picks up he freaks that it is going to blow away. I always tell him, you haven't seen bad wind until you've lived in Alaska, boy does it get windy there!
The only time it really gets to us is at night if it is blowing hard through the cottonwood trees and we just turn on a fan to drowned out the noise outside. Jane is right though, it will pass!
I am so in love with Carrizozo, lucky you to be moving out that way! Just did a road trip through there a couple weeks back on my way to White Sands. Next time I am going to spend more time in that town!
I noticed the new housing construction just east of the village going to Ruidoso a couple of months back and thats really cool to see Carrizozo grow. Does anyone remember ''Pete Kings'' grocery store there back in the 80's/90's.......
I lived in Alamogordo for 10 yrs and in Las Cruces for 3. The big winds used to start in April and go to around June, but for the last couple of years the winds have started in Feb. it howls, it's dry, usually hot and sometimes with dirt/sand blowing. It's terrible ! After 13 yrs I haven't gotten used to it! Can't wait to leave.....
Robin Marshment, who was a long-time respected meteorologist in Albuquerque, wrote a short article regarding the vaunted New Mexico spring winds in an early edition of Albuquerque The Magazine (around 2004 or 2005).
She noted that the spring winds that are so infamous in New Mexico, El Paso TX, etc., are somewhat overblown (no pun intended).
The winds, while real, generally occur in the springtime season in this region (February through early May). They do occur and often can produce a few dust storms per year.
HOWEVER...
Her article was spot-on, noting that the winds in this region are a result generally of spring-time Low pressure systems [eg: spring STORM systems] that influence the rest of the nation as well as us. However, in the other parts of the nation that are not desert / mountainous and thus where the air is not so dry, these winds often are out there as well, except, instead of dry, dusty gusts of winds, they occur along or in the form of severe thunderstorms, all-day rainstorms, snowstorms (in early spring), etc., even tornados regrettably.
Robin Marshment was originally from Wisconsin, as am I, and she cited also that in Feb-early May, we'd have in WI many, many of these ultra-gusty spring-time month windy days as well. However, she cited that since skies were often gray there (in contrast to this region) and temps were often in the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc., whereas temps down here are often in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, people were still indoor from the winter syndrome and didn't tend to notice the winds as much like we do here.
So essentially, the spring winds here definitely do exist and definitely are "real"...the "Gusty and Dusty" season exists in ABQ, Southern NM, El Paso, etc. And at their worst, they do produce some nasty dust storms. However, it isn't like this is caused by a weather phenomenon exclusive to this region (like the summer monsoons are)...it is caused by the same weather systems that produce the spring rainstorms, thunderstorms, severe thunderstorms, and tornados in the rest of the nation.
Spring is a season nationwide of marked weather change between High and Low systems on an ongoing basis, and when the change occurs, it produces storms - in most parts of the nation, the storms take many forms, in this region, it is typically wind.
I guess amidst all of my explanation / babbling, the point is this:
Yes, winds are a real spring issue to contend with on many days in NM. However, if you were elsewhere in the nation, it isn't as though you'd then evade spring weather problems....just ask the good folks of Oklahoma City, OK or Dallas, TX or Chicago, IL if they get any spring weather problems.
When I realize all of the storms that I could be contending with in spring transition times (like I did for years in Wisconsin), I find the winds to be fairly minimal in my concerns.
Whos afraid of some winds,,,,,its windy here in Lompoc CA most of the time.
I lived in Alamo five yrs and it only bothered me some when there was sand
mixed in with it! Cant wait to get back to Alamo, and pay less to live
in those winds!
I've wondered why our winds are so strong...maybe its the high altitude of the state as most of it is above 5,000 ft or maybe its being on the tail bottom of the Colorado Rockies as i'm not sure???
Although 2 twisters hit White Sands missle range a few days ago its extremely rare to have them here in NM but i think of the twisters in Kansas, Oklahoma and the Plains States or when i lived in Florida where the Hurricanes are hitting it and the Gulf Coasts more and more infact we had several tropical strorms over the 5 years i lived there hit Jacksonville,Fla with 80 to 90 mile per hour winds as i remember it well so it makes me not complain as much as i could about our strong spring winds here in NM.......
At first the winds were a novelty to me but now after several years
they do get old. And they are not just in the spring in southern NM,
they can blow pretty hard in the winter or even at times in the summers.
Also I live in one of the somewhat remote towns in southern NM and the
cost to go shopping for more sophisticated products just went up with
the recent gas spike. I find myself driving to Las Cruces or El Paso
more and more. I also notice my gas bill has risen dramatically. I am
seriously considering moving to a larger town or small city to decrease
the amount of driving that I now seem to be doing. In New Mexico that
is pretty much Santa Fe, Albuquerque or Las Cruces. Other than those
towns I find shopping pretty limited in the smaller NM communities. It would
be the same in other parts of the country but larger towns are usually not
so far apart as here in NM. Maybe it's the price for dry air and the escape
from humidity of the east that we pay for. I have lived in California and Arizona most of my life but as I get older I think more about the nice large hospitals and better doctors in the large cities.
I lived in New Jersey almost my entire life before moving here 2 years ago. I will take 365 days of this wind easily, before I would endure one more cold gray day with wet snow in New Jersey. I don't know why this is an issue. I think people who live here become spoiled weather-wise after a period of time. For me, it's all about escaping wet, cold and gray climates. If the trade-off is wind, then so be it.
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winds shminds!
Cant wait to get back to Alamo, and pay less to live
