Thanksgiving snow hits East Mountains

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In many communities east of Albuquerque, some folks were happy to talk about the dusting of snow or more they saw on Thanksgiving – others not so much.

The Rio Grande Valley didn’t see any snow Thursday but, driving around town, it was hard to miss the snowcapped mountains. Bright and early Thursday morning, folks lined up at the Sandia Peak Tram for their chance to go up to the winter wonderland.

Once they got to the crest, folks were making snow angels, going for snow-packed hikes through the trees, and who could resist throwing a snowball or two?

“The snow covered the base for the most part and it was still coming down,” Chad Gontkovic explained as his family of five got off the tram just after 3 p.m.

“Yeah there were flurries up there and as we were coming back down and they were throwing snowballs at us,” Chad’s wife, Jill, laughed as he gestured to her three kids, “so yes, there was plenty of snow up there.”

While the crest is as close to the metro as the snow got, many villages in the East Mountains woke up to snow falling and it stuck in some spots.

Out in Moriarty, the snow was coming down on and off most of the day, covering the sidewalks, parking lots and cars. For some folks, it wasn’t enough.

“I want more snow, like what New York got,” Trea Weed said, bundled up in his Green Bay Packers stocking cap.

“I wanna get snowed in for a week,” his girlfriend Noemi Leivas added.

“Yeah I would love to get snowed in,” Weed agreed.

Other travelers wouldn’t mind if this November snow would hold off a little bit, at least until they get where they are going.

“As long as I’m not driving, I’m on vacation from southern California so I’m not used to snow,” Amanda Grill said, “so letting it snow as much on the roads as possible is great for me, as long as I’m not on them.”

Between Moriarty and Albuquerque, the weather changes quite a bit. While the snow was sticking in Moriarty, all you had to do was go a little west and it melted as soon as it hits the ground.

In Edgewood, the roads were drying off, even as flurries continued to come down, but the roads were essentially dry and no snow was in sight, passing through Tijeras. It was a 180 from what we saw in the East Mountains Thursday morning with plenty of snow coming down just a few miles north in Cedar Crest.

Back in Albuquerque, I-40 was dry as a bone and traffic was moving steadily. It was cold, though, as temperatures dipped down into the mid-20s ahead of Black Friday morning.