Monsoon storms expected to ramp up in coverage today with a severe thunderstorm threat for much of Eastern New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —

Overnight east wind gusts peaked at 45 mph here in the Albuquerque metro, and a few isolated showers have developed early this morning. The trend should be for winds to settle into the sunrise hour and also for any scattered showers to likely dissipate. As we head into the afternoon, not only will we have heat to deal with again, but storm chances look like they will be much higher than the past couple days. High will still climb well into the 90s in most spots, even some 100s in Southern New Mexico, but we will not quite match yesterday’s highs which were the hottest of the week for most of us.

Skies look more active today with monsoon storms expected to fire up through much of central and especially Eastern New Mexico. Much of the eastern part of the state is included in today’s severe weather outlook with damaging winds gusts being the highest concern, followed by the threat of large hail. The chance of seeing any isolated tornadoes is quite low. Albuquerque will get in on a 30% chance of scattered storms for the later afternoon and evening hours. Storm chances do drop off a bit tomorrow, especially for Albuquerque, but we still expect scattered storms to be possible across much of Eastern New Mexico again, with an increase in storm chances across the southern part of the state. Temperatures still look pretty hot on Thursday with high back into the 90s for most and still a few 100s down south.

Friday brings another drop in storm chances, but not a drop in those temperatures just yet; highs in Albuquerque will be back into the mid 90s. Saturday looks to bring a shift to the areas most favored for storms, more into Western and Northwest New Mexico, but the highs don’t drop off much yet. Finally by Sunday we should be able to take a few degrees off of those afternoon highs keeping them in the lower 90s, and lower 90s for afternoon highs look to hold into early next week.