Winter's Not Over Yet

By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer The National Weather Service warned New Mexicans to prepare for the state's biggest winter storm in more than a year as storms swept in from the west Thursday afternoon. "It'll be a doozy," said Shawn Bennett, chief meteorologist at the Albuquerque Office of the National Weather Service. By the time the storm departs Saturday morning, it could leave an additional foot or more of snow in the state's northern and western mountains, with as much as 2 new feet in the Gila Wilderness. High winds and blizzardlike blowing snow could be seen in the upper elevations of the state's central mountains from the southern Sangre de Cristos south to the Manzano Mountains, in the Ruidoso region of the Sacramento Mountains, and in the high country in and around the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico, according to Bennett. "It looks like the biggest bull's-eye is over the Gila region," Bennett said late Thursday. In Albuquerque, 1 to 2 inches are possible as a burst of cold air hits the city this morning, Bennett said. The storm is the third to hit the state this week. It is likely to be the largest of the three, said Ed Polasko, hydrologist at the Weather Service's Albuquerque office. The first two have been good for the state's snowpack, which feeds the state's water supply when it melts in the spring and summer. Snowpack in the headwaters of the Chama River were 90 percent of normal at the start of the week, and, by Thursday morning, the storms had pushed it up to 105 percent with more on the way, Polasko said. The Animas-San Juan region snowpack rose from 70 percent before the storms to 80 percent Thursday morning, and snow continued to fall there all day Thursday. The storm lived up to its "doozy" billing on its way into New Mexico. Agua Fria River in the mountains north of Phoenix, normally a quiet creek, had as much water flowing down Thursday afternoon as the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The storm is forecast to leave the state Saturday, with sunny weather in the forecast for Sunday and Monday. Beyond that, forecasters are seeing signs of another storm that could reach New Mexico by the middle of next week.

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