The powerful spring storm that hit Northern New Mexico from March 26 to 28 forced the cancellation of high school athletic events and added much-needed moisture to the soil.
The storm blanketed the ground with three to five inches of snow in the Española area and added nearly a foot of snow to the snowpack at higher elevations.
The snow depth at Hopewell, a snow-measuring site in northern Rio Arriba County, increased from 54 inches March 26 to 64 inches March 27, the deepest measurement since Jan. 6, when the depth of snow measured 65 inches.
The elevation at the Hopewell site is 10,000 feet. The snow depth Tuesday was 60 inches at Hopewell.
Along with the snow came cold temperatures, The temperature at the measuring site dropped to three degrees March 28, while at the state Agricultural Center in Alcalde the morning temperature March 28 was 18 degrees.
The Center maintains an orchard of several varieties of fruit trees. Despite the low temperatures, the damage to the fruit crop was minimal, with the exception of some early-blooming varieties.
“The apricot blossoms were all frozen, as well as some early-blooming plums and peaches,” Steve Guldan at the Center said. “With the peaches, we have some later-blooming varieties that appear to be okay.”
Guldan reports that since 2001 the Center has never had a crop of apricots. David Salazar, who inspected the Center’s fruit trees, said the apples are holding back and the cherries weren’t blooming.
These fruits were likely not damaged by the cold temperatures, Salazar said.
The Center reported a total of .31 inches of precipitation from the storm.
“We had about two inches (of snow) on the ground March 28, but a lot of it was gone in 24 hours,” Guldan said. “It’s nice this time of year to be getting some moisture.”
Power Outage
The snowstorm knocked out power the night of March 26 in parts of Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative’s coverage area, Co-op Operations Manager Johnny Lujan said.
“The out began around 8:30, with the first calls coming in from Santa Clara,” Lujan said. “We restored service there by 9:45 p.m. We also had outages on McCurdy Road, a couple of outages in Chimayó, some small portions of La Mesilla and in Jacona.”
The weather was to blame for the outage, Lujan said.
“The issue is basically the late snow,” Lujan said Monday. “You have snow on trees with leaves, breaking branches. We always worry about late snows.”
Española resident Heidi Thorne saw that first hand. Thorne called 911 at 11 p.m. to report that a powerline was sparking and had caught a tree branch on fire at Cook’s Mobile Home Park, according to Thorne and 911 dispatch logs.
“It sparked for a good two and a half hours,” Thorne said. “It was a blizzard, snowing, but we knocked on neighbors doors because sparks were flying all over the neighbors’ houses.”