CNJ staff photo: Sharna Johnson A Thursday storm brought much needed rain to the area but weather officials say after Saturday the area will be dry for a bit longer.
Sharna Johnson
A welcome relief but still not enough, eastern New Mexico received its largest amount of moisture in four months on Thursday night.
A storm that swept through the area brought with it much-needed rain through the evening hours but the dry ground just soaked it all up, said Curry County Extension Agent Stan Jones.
“It sure smells good and it kind of settles the dirt. … It’s a start. We know it can rain again,” he said with a chuckle.
“I had one place got almost an inch of rain and another one only got two drops. We need a good uniform rain.”
Jones said while the need was great and the benefit of rain goes without question, in the greater scheme of things, the storm was, “nothing really to speak of.”
Usually by this time of year the area has had several inches of moisture, he said, where as this season Clovis had seen less than an inch.
“It won’t take but a day or two and that will be gone again,” he said, of Thursday’s moisture if high temperatures and winds continue as they have recently.
Before Thursday, the last significant moisture in the region occurred Jan. 31-Feb. 1, when about an inch of snow blanketed the area.
The dry weather is going to return, according to National Weather Service in Albuquerque, though overall conditions are shifting and there will eventually be rain this summer.
“It will start being dry again Wednesday or Thursday. It’s trying to change but it’s not changing completely — not yet,” said Meteorologist Maria Torres.
Torres said there is still moisture moving over the area from the south with a possibility of thunderstorms and rain from Friday afternoon through Saturday.
But she said those who receive more moisture will be those lucky enough to have a thunderstorm pass directly over them.
“This is a hit and miss situation,” she said.
Torres said the highest rain total reported Thursday for the Clovis area was seven-tenths of an inch, with just a little less reported in Roosevelt County.
Tuesday and Wednesday Portales received .36 inches of rain.
