Two cold storm systems move through the borderland in one weeks’ time. The first system hit last Friday bringing a cold rain to El Paso and Las Cruces by the evening hours. Although this first system brought mostly rain to the borderland it did bring some snow the local mountains as well as parts of the lower elevations of Otero County. But it also brought much needed rainfall, giving us .25 inches Friday evening at the El Paso International Airport.

A second storm system was to move in from the west on Monday and this storm system was going to be more interesting. As it was coming from the west a cold front was moving in from the plains to our east and the two were going to meet up right over the borderland. That combination would mean cold air would be in place making this second system a snow maker for the entire borderland. As the storm system moved into the area midday Monday snow showers moved into the borderland from the northwest. The snow began first in Deming, then spreading to Las Cruces and reaching the El Paso area by the early afternoon hours.

At the onset of the storm temperatures were above freezing, but as we went into the later afternoon and evening hours the temperatures dropped into the 20s. That caused bridges and overpasses that had become wet with afternoon snow to now freeze leading to many traffic accidents. The snow continued through the late evening hours with some areas seeing impressive totals. Snow totals of 4 to nearly 6 inches were recorded in and around Deming. Snow totals varied around the Las Cruces area with 1.5 inches falling around Old Mesilla, with up to 4.3 inches West Northwest of Las Cruces. For El Paso we saw .7 inches of snow at the El Paso International Airport with areas around Northeast El Paso seeing about 2 inches.

Along with the snow came the cold with a new Record low of 18 degrees Tuesday morning, this beating the old daily record of 19 degrees set back in 1959. But after our first snow storm of the season and period of below average temperatures, it looks like we will see a warm up come our way next week. And our next storm system should affect the area by the middle of next week.