Ruidoso trails average precipitation slightly
Cold temperatures, but no snow in forecast
- Ski Apache announced it will open Friday after receiving 8 inches of snow
The Ruidoso area is lagging slightly behind average in year-to-date precipitation and about average in snowfall despite its late arrival, according to Dwight Koehn from the Albuquerque forecast office of the National Weather Service.
The forecast through Sunday is for cloudy and cool weather, but no rain or snow.
Ruidoso’s normal total precipitation at this time of year is 20.5 inches, hitting closer to 22 inches by the end of the year. But the village has registered 19.29 inches, Koehn said. Other nearby stations in Lincoln County have numbers ranging from 15 inches to 20 inches, he said.
The SNOTEL automated telemetry weather station on a course near Sierra Blanca at 10,280 feet reported 6 inches of snow on Saturday. Ski Apache reported 8 inches of new snow over the weekend and officials there announced an opening date of Friday. In the village, snow depth measured about 3 inches to 4 inches. The average year-to-date is 3.5 inches, Koehn said.
However, the snow depth only produced precipitation or water content of 0.28 of an inch in Alto, 0.17 of an inch at Angus, 0.22 of an inch at Bonito Lake and 0.16 of an inch in Ruidoso.
“So it looks like you all are right at or slightly below average for the year,” Koehn said.
