Albuquerque experiences driest winter on record

This year, Albuquerque saw its driest winter season on record with total precipitation amounting to 0.12 inches at the Albuquerque Sunport, according to the Albuquerque National Weather Service.

In a statement to the Daily Lobo, NWS Albuquerque wrote that the average high temperature in February was also the second hottest on record, with the first being in 1907.

John Fleck, writer in residence at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center — a University of New Mexico center that promotes equitable and sustainable natural resource management — said that the extremely dry and warm weather is a “double whammy.”

During the week of March 3, high winds in New Mexico resulted in weather alerts for fire danger and low visibility.

On Thursday, March 6, the NWS issued a dust storm warning in the Albuquerque area, warning residents to prepare for a “sudden drop to zero visibility.”

“That was just terrifying, because it was dry wind that just sucks the moisture out of the soil and the trees,” Fleck said. “It makes us more vulnerable to wildfire, and that vulnerability to wildfire is just a wild card right now.”

The lack of water in the Rio Grande also poses a threat to the local ecosystem, according to Fleck. The endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow, for example, is threatened even without extreme dryness, he said.

Monsoon rains could help with a dry summer, but only for short periods in localized areas, Fleck said.

“The volume of water in a mountain snow storm is so much greater than the volume of water in a thunderstorm, so the thunderstorms will help if they hit the right spot, but they can't make up for all the water we get in the winter snows,” he said.

Mark Kelly, water resources manager at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, told the Daily Lobo that the ABCWUA is prepared for future dryness with a 100-year plan called “Water 2120.”

“Water 2120 plans for a hotter, drier future, and takes into account climatological modeling and preparing for a range of scenarios,” Kelly said. “I think we're pretty robust in terms of our planning and acknowledging that the future is going to be one where we do have less river flows and less snowpack.”

The ABCWUA plans to update the Water 2120 plan, which updates every 10 years, by 2026, Kelly said.

Jonathan Juárez (Laguna), campaign organizer for Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, said New Mexico’s water crisis is “horrifying.”

“I think of how horrified my ancestors would be to see things like the limited snowpack, the Rio Grande running dry every year, to see these climate catastrophes play out,” Juárez said. “Water in general played such a critical role, not just in our survival, but in our ceremonies and in our spirituality.”

Drying events in the Rio Grande are “not uncommon,” according to a 2022 NASA Earth Observatory article. Hundreds of miles of the lower river often run dry, but these drying events are starting to occur earlier in the year and farther north, according to the article.

Because of the low snowpack this winter, Fleck said, the Rio Grande will likely be dry by mid-summer, depending on the amount of snowfall in March.

Juárez said New Mexico’s historic, traditional water management practices are one way to prepare for the effects of climate change.

“We have water management practices like the acequias that go back generations and we’re used to living in this arid climate,” Juárez said. “I think listening to the concerns of frontline and Indigenous communities who have lived off the land, in synergy and harmony with this climate since time immemorial, is really the only way forward.”

Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06

Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88

---

---