A storm system that moved from the four corners area into eastern Arizona and western New Mexico brought much needed moisture to the borderland. That Sunday started off sunny with few signs that a storm system was on the way. In fact the high on Sunday was 62 degrees which occurred just after 1pm, that high temperature being some 5 degrees above average. But as we headed toward midafternoon things would begin to change in a big way weather-wise.

One of the first changes were the darker clouds which began showing up on the horizon to our west. Some of these did contain rain and snow showers, but they were not yet reaching the ground as the air was still too dry. But the storm system was just getting its legs and as afternoon went into evening light rain showers began turning into heavier rain. And the snow level which was visible in distant showers during the evening hours began to fall from 6,000ft around 5pm, down to 4,500 ft. by 8pm. Rain did mix with snow at lower elevations after 8pm but did not stick below 4,500 to 5,000 ft. Areas from the west side, to the airport and the northeast saw the wet snow flakes mixing in with the rain, but saw more rain than snow.

I myself was driving from northeast El Paso to the west side and saw the rain mixing with snow along U.S. 54. At which point I decided not to take Transmountain as I knew the higher up I went the more snow I would see. And even though I wanted to see a little more snow, I didn’t want to take any chances of getting stuck in it at night. So I took scenic drive which took me from a rain snow mix at 4,000 ft. to all snow at its highest point of 4,200 ft. The storm system continued to bring a mostly rain but occasionally a rain snow mix to El Paso and Las Cruces at slightly lower elevations of around 4,000 ft. through the night and morning hours. And it was much needed, already starting off this year now with .65 inches of precipitation.