Storm delivers about a half inch of rain to Ruidoso

• The combination of two storms brought needed precipitation

A storm that sat over Lincoln County for two days delivered about a half inch of rain to most communities, but another week of dry weather lies ahead before rain conditions return.

Readings from the storms showed 45/100th of an inch of rain two miles north of Alto, 41/100th one mile north of Alto,  55/100th in Carrizozo, 51/100ths in Picacho. The highest readings came from remote mountains near the county line with Socorro at 0.7 of an inch, meteorologist Todd Shoemake with the Albuquerque office of the National Weather Service said Monday.

Some Alto residents reported dime-size hail. On the Mescalero Apache Reservation that adjoins Ruidoso and where officials prepared to avert flooding from runoff after the Soldier Canyon Fire, received from 0.6 to 0.7 of an inch of rain.

"It was pretty interesting because June 15, Friday, was the official first day of monsoon season and we really brought in a pretty good surge of moisture," Shoemake said. "We had a few things going on, The most notable was hurricane Bud, which developed off the southwestern coast of old Mexico. That drifted northward and decreased in intensity and turned into a tropical storm. Then was downgraded to a tropical depression

"It continued northward through the Gulf of California and as it moved up those cooler waters, it really lost its strength and organization. But fortunately, a lot of the moisture associated with it in the atmosphere continued to drift northward and came right on up to New Mexico."

That system was a big player and brought a lot of precipitation late Friday afternoon into Friday night and through Saturday morning, he said.

"Then we had another Pacific disturbance that came from farther west than Bud, essentially west of the Baja Peninsula, and that disturbance came in and essentially, just messed with a lot of the moisture already in place over New Mexico," Shoemake said. "It ignited additional showers and thunderstorms. Those two features were the key players in bringing us a pretty significant rainfall event Friday into Saturday."

Unfortunately, the week ahead looks dry with temperatures rising and humidity dropping, he said.

"By the end of the week, it should be warm and toasty," Shoemake said.

"(The area) might have to endure this warm-up and dry spell through the week, but into the next couple of weeks, we should start to see a better shot of getting some moisture back in here," he said. "Hang on another couple of weeks. It should return."

Overall, the Pacific oscillation is considered in a neutral condition, neither a La Nina that usually spells dry weather for the Southwest, nor El Nino, which usually heralds a wetter season.

"But there are projects that an El Nino could take shape, not a strong one, but it  looks like it could happen in the summer months," Shoemake said..