Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So I have a couple of friends who live in Sandia Park (elevation 7,077). They told me that they get 2-4 ft of snow in winter (5ft this past winter), times when temps don't get above freezing for a couple of weeks and temps around zero are not unusual.
I was wondering how that compares to the average winter in Santa Fe (elevation 7,199). I know elevation isn't the only factor determining the weather so curious to hear from residents in and around the Santa Fe area of their experiences with winter weather. Is it similar to Sandia Park, milder or harsher?
Milder, much milder. SF used to get a couple of feet of snow or so in the winters. Then the climate in the area went through a warming spell, and the snowfalls became much lighter and more infrequent: one to two inches in the city. Then. the roughly decade-and-a-half warming trend cooled off a little for a few years, and we got a foot of snow maybe a couple of times each winter, and the summers got cooler, thank heaven!
What happens this winter remains to be seen. Summer has been moderate, too.
In any case, SF is nothing like Sandia Park, it sounds like. Some people used to liken Santa Fe to Flagstaff weather-wise, but no; it's been far from it since I've lived here. OTOH, it's good to have a winter snowpack; we need the moisture.
Thanks for the info - I was beginning to think SF residents had abandoned this forum...!!
Summer temps in Sandia Park usually max out in the mid 80s but according to my friends it has been much hotter for an extended period of time this year so they seem to be getting extremes of heat and cold.
Thanks for the info - I was beginning to think SF residents had abandoned this forum...!!
Summer temps in Sandia Park usually max out in the mid 80s but according to my friends it has been much hotter for an extended period of time this year so they seem to be getting extremes of heat and cold.
That's interesting. It sounds like their area very much has their own microclimate phenomena going on. I'm grateful for Santa Fe's return to more reasonable temps the last few years, though climatologists say it's only temporary, and the overall trend is toward warmer weather. I'm enjoying the back-to-almost-normal trend for as long as it lasts.
Another concern is the weakening trend in the monsoon season over the years. This year we haven't really even had a proper monsoon; just an occasional rare day with a brief rain shower, at least in Santa Fe County. This does not bode well for the future, and for the water supply.
This year we haven't really even had a proper monsoon; just an occasional rare day with a brief rain shower, at least in Santa Fe County.
Here in Ruidoso - so far this year - the "monsoon" season was 3 consecutive days in mid July when rainfall totaled about 4" at my house. Other times the rainfall has been in the tenth inch range, when there is any at all.
Here in Ruidoso - so far this year - the "monsoon" season was 3 consecutive days in mid July when rainfall totaled about 4" at my house. Other times the rainfall has been in the tenth inch range, when there is any at all.
Yes, it's worrisome. We were supposed to have rain yesterday and next weekend, but yesterday's didn't materialize at all AFAIK, unless there was some light rain at night in another part of town. The month has been dry so far, and August used to be one of the main rainy months.
The weather has been interesting to watch this year. The weekly forecast starts with a string of days with less than a 10% of precipitation, then as each day arrives, it gets updated to 40-60%, but the rest remain low. We appear to be in the middle of the area the pressure centers are unpredictable this year.
Combine that with the usual pattern of thunderstorms building, and heading toward us on Radar, looking like they are going to pack a punch, then dissipating just before the track here and dropping nothing or virga.
"Mama told me there'd be <years> like this."
We live in Eldorado, and it can pass overhead at our house and flip us the bird as it goes dryly by, but less than a mile from here things are soaked. The monsoon season started here with some promise and probably a little early, but has been "a whole lotta nuthin'" for the most part, since.
The weather has been interesting to watch this year. The weekly forecast starts with a string of days with less than a 10% of precipitation, then as each day arrives, it gets updated to 40-60%, but the rest remain low. We appear to be in the middle of the area the pressure centers are unpredictable this year.
Combine that with the usual pattern of thunderstorms building, and heading toward us on Radar, looking like they are going to pack a punch, then dissipating just before the track here and dropping nothing or virga.
"Mama told me there'd be <years> like this."
We live in Eldorado, and it can pass overhead at our house and flip us the bird as it goes dryly by, but less than a mile from here things are soaked. The monsoon season started here with some promise and probably a little early, but has been "a whole lotta nuthin'" for the most part, since.
The same thing happens in the south of Santa Fe; the clouds roll past overhead, maybe giving us a light drizzle (if anything) for a few minutes. Then the north end can get flooded. But that hasn't happened this year, except for the weak drizzle in the south.
This reminds me of when I spent a couple of winters in Ecuador, in the 90's. Winter is supposed to be the rainy season there. But there was no rain. The clouds would cascade in over the Andes from Amazonia, but by the time they reached the Sierra, there was no rain left in them. Lots of cloudy days, or intermittently-cloudy, with no rain. That was the new regime. Sounds like a drought in the making, doesn't it? Well, as it turns out, in this past decade, traditional farmers (read: Native people) have been abandoning the rural areas in droves, due to the lack of water, and moving to the cities, looking for work, because there's no water to support farming anymore. But there are few jobs in the cities, so poverty soars. The rural populace has lost its self-sufficency, and is now dependent on wage labor, but the economy, which was growing under Rafael Correa, has collapsed.
So I bring this up, because I'm seeing eerie shadows of those rainless clouds showing up in our current weather pattern in northern NM. Beware storm clouds that release no rain, or too little rain.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
