793
FXUS65 KABQ 211142
AFDABQ

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Albuquerque NM
442 AM MST Fri Nov 21 2025

...New AVIATION...

.KEY MESSAGES...
Updated at 432 AM MST Fri Nov 21 2025

- Very low chance of fog and freezing fog across western and
  northern valley locations Friday morning.

- Another storm system will bring a round of widespread lower
  elevation rain and mountain snow Saturday night through early
  Monday morning. A few inches of accumulating snow will again be
  favored above 8,500 feet.


&&

.SHORT TERM...
(Today through Saturday)
Issued at 106 AM MST Fri Nov 21 2025

The remnants of yesterdays upper low are quickly lifting into
the central plains with rain and snow showers dwindling over
northern NM. Some low stratus clouds are persisting over the
northern and western mountains of NM, and there will be potential
for patchy fog/freezing fog through the post dawn hours.
Upstream, our next weather maker for later this weekend is already
churning over CA with a couple of vort lobes pinwheeling around
the state, one over San Francisco Bay and the other near the
Channel Islands west of the L.A. metro. The former will become the
dominant piece of energy, quickly diving southward over open
Pacific waters just west of the upper Baja peninsula by late
today. While moisture associated with this low will spread some
mid level clouds into western NM today, the primary cloud cover
and more impact will come from the aforementioned low stratus
which may not fully burn off and erode until the early afternoon,
especially in northwestern NM. This will keep temperatures at or
even a couple degrees cooler than was observed there yesterday
with most other areas struggling to make gains of a couple to just
a few degrees (2-5). Otherwise dry conditions will prevail today
with very light breezes.

Into Saturday, the upper low will work over the Baja Peninsula,
becoming more concentric, vertically-stacked, and defined by the
primary vort lobe originating from west central CA. After todays
swath of mid level clouds lift northward, another spoke of
altocumulus/altostratus will lift northeastward over NM on
Saturday. Surface winds will start to veer southerly with some
moderately breezy speeds modeled in west central zones, but
otherwise they will stay light. The southerly wind component and
rising pressure heights will allow temperatures to climb with all
areas running near to slightly above average Saturday.

&&

.LONG TERM...
(Saturday night through Thursday)
Issued at 106 AM MST Fri Nov 21 2025

Through the night Saturday and into Sunday morning, the upper low
will lift northeastward into AZ. While the low will not have a
subtropical tap of moisture, there will be enough dynamical lift
and available Pacific moisture from the mid latitudes to generate
widespread precipitation over Old Mexico and southwestern states,
including NM Saturday night through Sunday before tapering off
that evening. The temperatures within the core of the low are
still expected to be comparable to yesterdays low with 700 mb
readings projected to hover between -2 to -3 C. This will keep
snow levels fairly high with appreciable accumulations tending to
stay above 8,000 to 8,500 ft. The northern mountains remain poised
to endure the longest duration of large scale ascent, both from
diffluence preceding the low and wrap-around lifting processes
near and on the backside of the low. With a consensus blended QPF
of around 0.3 to 0.6 over the northern mountains and low snow-to-
liquid ratios (likely ranging from 4:1 to 7:1), just a few inches
of snow accumulation are forecast (2 to 8"). Outside of the
northern mountains, QPF from 0.2 to 0.5 inch will be common again,
not too shabby before La Nina meteorological winter begins.
Temperatures will run 3 to 8 degrees below normal in most locales
of northern and central NM Sunday. The low will lift toward the
CO-KS border Sunday night with precipitation waning in NM.

A mostly dry start still looks to be in store for the work week
next week with west northwest flow aloft prevailing. Despite this
component, pressure heights will rise from Sunday to Monday with
temperatures rebounding closer to normal. There are some mild
uncertainties with the depth and track of a northern Rockies low
that could have implications on the upper level gradient over NM
for Monday, but for now breezy to locally windy (over the central
highlands near Clines Corners) conditions have been built into the
forecast. This northern Rockies low will have implications into
Tuesday with the strength and timing of a backdoor cold front that
would start dropping temperatures and continue that trend into
Wednesday. Support from a progressive shortwave trough (over the
central Rockies in tandem with the low farther north) could
introduce slight chances for precipitation over the far northeast
highlands and Raton Pass areas Tuesday into early Wednesday with
otherwise dry conditions prevailing. It should be noted that the
deterministic GFS is considerably deeper and closed off with this
low than the ECMWF, but the ENS ensemble mean is a bit deeper than
its operational member. A solution closer to the GFS/GEFS would
favor a more substantial cold front intrusion with much stronger
cold air advection Tuesday into Wednesday.

&&

.AVIATION...
(12Z TAFS)
Issued at 432 AM MST Fri Nov 21 2025

Low stratus clouds and very patchy fog/freezing fog will be the
primary aviation concerns through the morning and early afternoon,
mainly over northern and western New Mexico. Scattered areas of
MVFR ceilings (less than 3000 ft) will be common in these northern
and western areas through the morning, and potentially longer
into the afternoon in northwestern New Mexico. While fog will be
very patchy or isolated, some areas will be dense, occasionally
dropping visibility to less than 1/2 mile through the mid morning.
VFR conditions will return to all areas by late afternoon and
prevail through the night.

&&

.FIRE WEATHER...
Issued at 106 AM MST Fri Nov 21 2025

No critical fire weather concerns exist for the next several days.
Yesterdays Pacific low brought widespread soaking rain and a
couple to a few inches of high mountain snow, and yet another
storm system will provide a similar reprieve again Saturday night
into Sunday. For those undertaking prescribed burning, humidity
values will remain elevated today, especially in northern mountain
zones with stubborn low stratus clouds. Excellent humidity
recoveries will follow tonight and each subsequent night, and on
Saturday night the ongoing precipitation will make things quite
soggy through Sunday. Mostly dry conditions will be the rule for
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week, but good to excellent
humidity recovery will still occur each night. True to form for
this time of year, the smoke ventilation and dispersion rates will
often remain low with only isolated areas briefly mixing out
during the mid to late afternoon hours.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
Farmington......................  51  33  59  38 /   0   0   0  50
Dulce...........................  47  20  58  27 /   0   0   0  50
Cuba............................  47  27  56  32 /   0   0   0  70
Gallup..........................  49  24  57  29 /   0   0   5  80
El Morro........................  48  30  55  32 /   0   0   5  80
Grants..........................  50  25  56  31 /   0   0   5  80
Quemado.........................  51  28  58  32 /   0   0   5  80
Magdalena.......................  50  32  55  37 /   0   0   5  80
Datil...........................  49  28  54  33 /   0   0   5  80
Reserve.........................  53  23  62  30 /   0   0  10  90
Glenwood........................  56  27  66  33 /   0   0  10  80
Chama...........................  42  20  52  27 /   5   0   0  60
Los Alamos......................  47  33  52  36 /   0   0   0  70
Pecos...........................  51  28  56  33 /   0   0   0  70
Cerro/Questa....................  46  26  52  31 /   0   0   0  50
Red River.......................  40  20  45  24 /   0   0   0  50
Angel Fire......................  45  12  52  19 /   0   0   0  60
Taos............................  49  20  55  28 /   0   0   0  60
Mora............................  52  25  57  29 /   0   0   0  60
Espanola........................  53  26  60  32 /   0   0   0  70
Santa Fe........................  49  33  57  37 /   0   0   0  70
Santa Fe Airport................  51  28  58  36 /   0   0   0  70
Albuquerque Foothills...........  53  38  61  42 /   0   0   0  70
Albuquerque Heights.............  54  33  63  41 /   0   0   0  70
Albuquerque Valley..............  55  32  64  41 /   0   0   0  70
Albuquerque West Mesa...........  54  35  62  42 /   0   0   0  70
Belen...........................  55  28  62  37 /   0   0   0  70
Bernalillo......................  55  33  63  40 /   0   0   0  70
Bosque Farms....................  55  28  63  37 /   0   0   0  70
Corrales........................  55  33  64  41 /   0   0   0  70
Los Lunas.......................  55  30  62  39 /   0   0   0  70
Placitas........................  51  36  60  40 /   0   0   0  70
Rio Rancho......................  54  34  63  41 /   0   0   0  70
Socorro.........................  56  33  63  40 /   0   0   0  70
Sandia Park/Cedar Crest.........  48  31  57  36 /   0   0   0  70
Tijeras.........................  49  33  57  37 /   0   0   0  70
Edgewood........................  51  28  58  34 /   0   0   0  70
Moriarty/Estancia...............  54  21  60  32 /   0   0   0  60
Clines Corners..................  49  28  55  32 /   0   0   0  60
Mountainair.....................  51  28  59  34 /   0   0   0  70
Gran Quivira....................  51  28  60  36 /   0   0   0  70
Carrizozo.......................  54  33  63  39 /   0   0   0  60
Ruidoso.........................  53  33  56  37 /   0   0   0  60
Capulin.........................  49  26  57  29 /   0   0   0  30
Raton...........................  54  26  58  29 /   0   0   0  40
Springer........................  56  25  60  29 /   0   0   0  40
Las Vegas.......................  53  27  57  32 /   0   0   0  60
Clayton.........................  56  33  61  37 /   0   0   0  30
Roy.............................  56  29  57  34 /   0   0   0  40
Conchas.........................  61  32  62  37 /   0   0   0  50
Santa Rosa......................  59  30  58  37 /   0   0   0  50
Tucumcari.......................  61  31  63  37 /   0   0   0  50
Clovis..........................  63  35  65  41 /   0   0   0  50
Portales........................  64  33  65  42 /   0   0   0  50
Fort Sumner.....................  62  31  61  39 /   0   0   0  50
Roswell.........................  65  35  64  45 /   0   0   0  50
Picacho.........................  63  33  61  39 /   0   0   0  50
Elk.............................  62  30  61  34 /   0   0   0  50

&&

.ABQ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
None.
&&

$$

SHORT TERM...52
LONG TERM....52
AVIATION...52