WHAT IS ALBUQUERQUE LOW AND HOW IT CREATES THE CONDITIONS SURROUNDING ALL WHITE

Never ending snow… that’s what this week has felt like here in Southern Colorado. The low pressure persisted as it moved through the Four Corners region before turning to the Albuquerque low. Let’s talk about what Albuquerque low is.

Essentially, the Albuquerque Low is a powerful low pressure system that moves northeast near Albuquerque, New Mexico and then through southeastern Colorado. Winds around low pressure rotate counterclockwise. Where you are relative to the position of the low determines the direction of your wind and therefore the impact of the storm.

These systems form when the dip of our jet stream, called a trough, dives south of the U.S. Pacific Coast and the trough breaks away from the rest of the jet stream… which typically acts as our storm conveyor belt. We call this isolated minimum the cutoff minimum. Once the storm leaves the conveyor belt, it moves over New Mexico. The storm then moves northeast toward southeastern Colorado. This will bring southeasterly, easterly and finally northeasterly winds to Southern Colorado.

Warm, moist air, usually from a southerly flow, then rises above the cold surface air. This increases the amount of precipitation, and the strength of the minimum determines the strength of the gusty winds. More powerful low… more powerful wind.

Finally, it will help if we have a situation like we saw this week with high pressure over the Plains preventing the storm from moving anywhere quickly. This results in long-lasting storms that result in more snowfall in Southern Colorado than in northern areas such as Denver.

Generally speaking, the Albuquerque low is our best snow setup. Next week, our storm conveyor belt will begin to move west to east again, meaning there will be no more stuck systems in the near future.

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