Rainy start to first weekend of December for New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albuquerque saw a little over half an inch of rain through the weekend. While everyone seemed to be prepared for all the rain that moved in, we’re learning a little more about what this storm system means for our state.

We spoke with the National Weather Service about this rare weekend of rain. 

It’s December and while most people dream of seeing snow flurries in Albuquerque, all we got was a lot of rain.

“It’s subtropical moisture. So it came from a subtropics which are much warmer, especially this time of year,” said Andrew Church, National Weather Service meteorologist.

We saw a lot of rain Saturday afternoon, but there’s something else about this moisture that stands out for this time of year.

“Maybe just one other time in the past over the last 50 years or so. To have this deep moisture and subtropical moisture moving up from the south this late in the year is pretty- this event is close to being unprecedented for us,” Church said.

This is a rare event to see during December. During this time of the year, a lot of people like to hit the slopes, but this kind of weather can impact that a little bit.

“You’re getting the basis of some ski areas that are getting rain, and they got rain last night rain this morning, so it’s not a good thing for skiers,” said Church. 

But don’t worry, since this is so rare, we should see more normal winter weather soon.  

“Hopefully that the rain will be just temporary and we get back to kind of a normal, colder, winter pattern,” Church said.