Monsoon season 2014 in New Mexico

The Monsoon season (June 15 to September 30) in New Mexico started with minimum or none rain during June and it was not until early July that we received the first rains but less than one inch. The active period was almost at the end of the season (early-mid September) which provided moisture during these last weeks.  We also had a big event in where received more than 3 inches of rainfall in some zones, mostly in Las Cruces and Southwest NM (figure 2).  The ideal is to receive the rainfall distributed along the entire season in multiple events and not in only one, but it was not the case. We end up with few events in September, including one big event of rain. The inconvenience with this is that we receive a large amount of rainfall in a short period of time and this causes the soil to get saturated and in consequence we have increase in runoff and floods. This was the case of the Mid-September event, in which we received input from the remnants of hurricane Odile (Last week rainfall events-hurricane Odile).

The following maps show the precipitation totals during Monsoon Season for New Mexico State, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces, NM.



Map 1: New Mexico total precipitation during Monsoon Season. Mapped by Yizhi Zhao from NM State Climatologist Office.

Map 2: Rainfall across Albuquerque area during Monsoon Season. Mapped by Yizhi Zhao from NM State Climatologist Office.

Map 3: Rainfall across Las Cruces Area during Monsoon Season. Mapped by Yizhi Zhao from NM State Climatologist Office.

The following graphs show accumulated precipitation for Albuquerque and Las Cruces.

 

Figure 1: Accumulated Precipitation. Weather station: Albuquerque International Airport, NM.  Graph from scacis.rcc-acis.org.

 

 

Figure 2: Accumulated Precipitation. Weather station: Las Cruces Municipal Airport, NM. In September 15^th-18^th, hurricane Odile and moisture from the remnants produced heavy rainfall and caused flooding over the Baja California area and the southwestern United States. The weather station in Las Cruces Municipal Airport registered almost three inches of rainfall for this event.  Graph from scacis.rcc-acis.org.

According to the 2014 North American Monsoon (NAM) Outlook for central and northern New Mexico, a key factor that influenced this Monsoon season was the massive volume of anomalously warm water in the equatorial Pacific Region (2014 North American Monsoon (NAM) Outlook for central and northern New Mexico).

Although these rainfall events caused flood and difficulties, is important to mention that it, by the other side, improved the drought conditions is some zones of New Mexico (Last week rainfall events-hurricane Odile).

Last week rainfall events-Hurricane Odile

During the past week, starting Tuesday 16th, Hurricane Odile and moisture from the remnants produced heavy rainfall and caused flooding over the Baja California area and the southwestern United States.  We had a significant amount of rain in a relatively short period of time. The soil quickly gets saturated and water starts to accumulate.  Here, in New Mexico, we do not have a lot of natural hazards but flooding tops out on the list and causes inconvenience.





Photo 1-Heavy runoff in North of Rodeo, NM. Photo by David DuBois




Photo 2-Heavy runoff in North of Rodeo, NM. Photo by David DuBois

Photo 3-Playa West of Lordsburg, NM. Photo by David DuBois

Heavy Rain runoff in Rodeo, NM. on September 19, 2014. Video by D. DuBois

Flash flood concerned portions of Eastern New Mexico and Western Texas ,but at the same time it eased the droughts in some zones of the Southwest region, where some areas have been experiencing extreme to exceptional drought conditions.  The NM Drought Monitoring Work Group met past Tuesday, 23 of September, for their monthly meeting and they agree in modify the current U.S. Drought Monitor map for New Mexico. According to the Drought Summary from the National Weather Service, Albuquerque NM, drought was removed from portions of southeast New Mexico, but 63% of the state is still in moderate to extreme drought and 30% is still in severe to extreme drought. The none drought category increases from 3 to 16%, which reflects about 13% of improvement in Southwest of New Mexico (figures 1 and 2).



Figure 1: U.S. Drought Monitor Weekly Comparison. Left map shows data from September 16, 2014 and right map shows September 23, 2014.
Source: U.S. Drought Monitor



Figure 2: U.S. Drought Monitor for September 23, 2014.
Source: U.S. Drought Monitor

Monsoon has been active late in the Monsoon season and provided moisture during the past weeks. Input from Hurricane Odile impulsed more humidity this last week.

 Time Lapse of the Organ Mountains on September 19, 2014. Video by D. DuBois



-Cristina Gonzalez