Strong cold front continues to sit across eastern New Mexico

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A cold front will keep bitterly cold air across eastern New Mexico through Tuesday. A midweek storm could bring freezing drizzle to southeast parts of the state.

A strong, but shallow backdoor cold front pushed into eastern New Mexico this weekend, leaving a sharp boundary between Artic air behind the front and warmer air to the west. Because this front is shallow, it is staying in the eastern half of New Mexico. However, low clouds and freezing fog has developed behind the front as well and will continue to impact the eastern part of the state tonight through Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, the western half of New Mexico continues to see very mild and dry weather.

A storm system will approach New Mexico Tuesday, bringing light snow to northwest and northern parts of the state. The heaviest snow will fall in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado and the Chuska Mountains along the Arizona state line. Snow will wrap up Tuesday night, but then the attention will turn to southern New Mexico as the same storm will be drawing moisture up into this part of the state.

There is some uncertainty in the track of the storm system Wednesday, which will play a role in the amount and location of precipitation across the southern part of the state. However, the most likely scenario will be a chance for light freezing drizzle and light snow in southeast New Mexico. This could have some travel impacts, especially the closer to the Texas state line you get.

Winter weather in southern New Mexico will wrap up by Thursday as a warming trend begins statewide. High pressure builds in overhead by Friday and high temperatures will climb back above average through the weekend.