Southwest winter storm strikes into New Mexico; as much as foot of snow doable in northeast mountains

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A sequence of slow-moving winter storms that wreaked havoc in Southern California and left 3 ft (91 centimeters) of snow in northern Arizona made its approach Saturday into New Mexico, the place a stretch of U.S. freeway south of the Colorado line was closed and as a lot as a foot (30 cm) of snow was doable in some mountain areas.

A winter storm warning remained in impact for elements of north-central and northeast New Mexico till 5 a.m. Sunday. That included the Sante Fe space, the place as much as 14 inches (36 cm) of snow was doable within the mountains to the east and as much as a half-foot (15 cm) within the higher elevations to the west, forecasters mentioned.

Nationwide Park officers closed the Bandelier Nationwide Monument close to Los Alamos, New Mexico Saturday afternoon “on account of worsening climate.” The town of Albuquerque closed most metropolis parks, golf programs and recreation areas.

Most interstates and highways remained open, however a 40-mile (64-kilometer) stretch of U.S. Freeway 64 south of the Colorado line was closed due to blowing snow in near-blizzard situations, the New Mexico Division of Transporation mentioned.

“Winter climate journey impacts will change into widespread at the moment and tonight, then linger over east-central and southeast areas on Sunday,” the Nationwide Climate Service in Albuquerque mentioned Saturday afternoon. It mentioned journey could be tough to not possible Saturday night time into Sunday alongside some stretches of I-25 and certain affected alongside the I-40 hall from Albuquerque east to the Texas line.

The storm system slowly moved out of California early Wednesday after days of wind, report rain and heavy snowfall that precipitated energy outages, road flooding and a whole bunch of harmful mudslides round Los Angeles. It dumped 3 ft (91 cm) of snow over three days in Flagstaff, Arizona, closing lengthy stretches of interstate earlier than monitoring east on Friday.