December to begin warm, dry in metro area after wet November

November will be remembered for its cool and wet weather, including a couple of days when parts of the metro area received several inches of snow that caused widespread power outages.

The start of December, however, is slated to be calm, warm and dry.

November’s average high temperature in Albuquerque was 44.9 degrees, which is less than a degree below average, 45.7. Albuquerque International Sunport officially received 1.06 inches of precipitation for the month, which is almost twice the average, .57 inches. The record for November is 1.99 inches set in 2019, National Weather Service technician Troy Marshall said Sunday.

Though the NWS may have reported only an inch of precipitation at the airport, the early November storm caused tree branches to break and thousands of customers to lose power through the area. Some people were powerless for hours, others for days.

“This really is an unprecedented storm in the fact that it came so early and so heavily while leaves were still on the trees and that has caused limbs to be much heavier than they would normally be,” PNM spokesperson Jeff Buell said during a Nov. 7 city of Albuquerque news conference. “And as you’ve probably seen for yourselves, that has caused a lot of the broken tree limbs around the city.”

Buell said at one point there were over 50,000 customers without power in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas.

While November was cool, wet, and, at times, inconvenient for many, Sunday was dry and warm.

The high was 56 degrees, about 9 degrees more than normal for December, 47.3 degrees, Marshall said. High temperatures are expected to remain in the 50s through the week, though it could reach 60 on Wednesday. However, this week’s highs are not expected to break any records, he said.

Other parts of New Mexico — including Clovis, Roswell and Socorro — could see temps reach the low to mid-60s on Wednesday, according to the NWS.

The December to February weather outlook across the state is expected to be warmer and drier than normal, which could “create some issues” regarding next year’s wildfire season “if this comes to pass,” Marshall said.