Cold Wet/Snowy Weekend Coming Up.

- Friday, December 02, 2016

Valid At 5 PM MST Saturday.

Our next winter storm to impact the region was located over southern California this morning and still digging to the south. By Saturday at sunset the GFS model depicted above forecasts a cutoff upper level low to be located over the Gulf of California. This cold and wet upper level storm is then forecast to open up into a trough of low pressure and swing northeastward out of the Big Bend Region and across Texas Monday into Monday night.

GFS Surface Map & Precipitation Type Forecast.

Valid At 5 AM MST Saturday.

A cold front will backdoor into the area today into tonight bringing with it colder temperatures. Rain will develop this afternoon and overspread the area tonight. Its a tough call right now but it appears that the Roswell area may pick up and 1" or 2" of snow late tonight into tomorrow morning. Just how far south the snow line goes is questionable...perhaps as far south as Artesia. Saturday and Sunday will see moderate to even heavy amounts of rainfall locally with some of us picking up over and inch of rain. A cold rain will dominate but may change over to wet snow in some locations Saturday night. The mountains are the favored locations to see heavy snow this weekend.

A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for the Southern Sacramento Mountains from this evening through Sunday afternoon. New snow accumulations of 6" to 12" are forecast for Mountain Park, Mescalero, Cloudcroft, Silver Lake, Mayhill, Weed-Sacramento, Pinon, Timberon, and the Sunspot areas.

A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Lincoln and Southwest Chaves County and parts of Eastern New Mexico. New snowfall accumulations of 2" to 4" will be possible with higher amounts possible at the higher elevations. Ruidoso could end up with a storm total of 4" to 7" and Ski Apache with a foot or more. Wind chill valves at Ski Apache may drop down to as low as -2ºF.

A High Wind Watch is in effect for the Guadalupe Mountains from this evening through Saturday night for northeast winds at 30 to 50 mph gusting up to 60 mph along and behind the approaching cold front.

NWS Forecast High Temps Today.