Snowmelt lowers fire risk in northeastern New Mexico, but overall state is still parched

Yahoo

19-05-2025

Despite the laments of a famous frog, it is easy being green.
As late-season snow melted, northeastern New Mexico greened up this month, said service senior hydrologist Andrew Mangham for the National Weather Service's Albuquerque office.
That's good news for fire risk.
'While you can't control the winds and the low humidities, that green ... makes those fuels less receptive to spreading fire,' Mangham said. 'So fire weather concerns are, in fact, muted up in the areas where we caught that snow because of the beneficial effects it's having on all the fuels.'
Snowmelt has an important role in the state's water cycle. After recent snowfall in the northeastern corner of the state, the area is seeing relief from short-term drought conditions. But despite the recent precipitation windfall, long-term drought conditions probably aren't going away any time soon.
Drought map
Much of New Mexico still remains in some form of drought.
The majority of the snow has already melted, although there's still some remaining near Santa Fe and Taos, Mangham said. That's left rivers around the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with higher-than-normal flows.
Although some areas are seeing too much, too fast — Mangham said there have been reports of flooding in the Rociada area, when warm rain quickly melted snow — typically snowmelt provides a gentler form of hydration than the dramatic summer monsoons.
'But one of the reasons snowmelt is such an important component of our water supply is that it's a fundamentally different mode of delivery for water than the monsoon season,' Mangham said. 'It kind of slowly bleeds out, and that really gives it a chance to infiltrate and cause green up in the rivers and trees and forests.'
The recent precipitation and snowmelt is a boon for short-term drought conditions in northeastern New Mexico, Mangham said. In the short term, drought can affect growing seasons, soil quality and rangelands.
But it's not all good news. Long-term drought conditions, which impact the overall water supply, will likely endure, Mangham said. And while some parts of the state were saturated, others missed out. The southwestern corner of the state still experiencing high fire risk; while drought conditions improved slightly over last week, about 98% of the state is still experiencing some level of drought, according to National Weather Service data.
'A good spring that wets the ground and get some of the trees looking healthier doesn't make up for the fact that many of our forests are suffering from long-term drought stress,' Mangham said. 'That's why our piñon trees, for example, are starting to die off in certain parts of the state because they're just suffering from long-term drought stress.'
Earlier this year, the state Forestry Division released a report showing tree deaths in the state's forest had more than doubled between 2023 and 2024. A coordinator for the service at the time said drought had been a long-time stressor on forests in the Southwest.
The recent burst of precipitation didn't make up for the 'tremendously dry' winter, Mangham said. While the monsoon is an important part of the state's water cycle, the cyclical storms occur during hotter weather. When the rainwater spreads out, a significant amount is lost to evaporation.
'That snowpack, that winter water supply — the importance of that cannot be overestimated,' Mangham said.