Thursday, May 19, 2011

May 19

Dust alert for Cd. Juarez/Palomas/Columbus and the Paso del Norte. I'm looking at another windy day but not as strong as yesterday in Las Cruces. Moisture has moved in overnight with a cold front keeping temperatures down. Dewpoints are in the mid 30s this morning, just a few degrees higher than yesterday at this time.

Based on the RUC the highest winds are going to be south of the border today in the late afternoon. Below is the 6 pm wind forecast showing west southwest winds in Chihuahua and the Bootheel with northwest winds in NM.
Today's AQI forecast again takes into consideration wind blown dust with orange for PM10 and yellow for PM2.5. Orange is "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" and yellow is "moderate" air quality.
There was some precipitation across the northern half of NM and one location in NW Grant County based on the CoCoRaHS observers.
Still no precipitation for us in the 5-day forecast. Today the NOAA Climate Prediction Center published their forecast for the next few months. At least for the June-August, the prediction is for equal chances of an above. below and normal precipitation. That's a good sign compared to the past few months of below normal. This follows the weakening strong La Nina pattern that has gripped us since last fall.
I was in Lordsburg in the afternoon and I didn't see much dust. It was breezy with 1-minute winds up to 20 mph. Temperatures were rather cool while I was there. Just after 5 pm it was 67F.

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