If you live up in the mountains—places like Taos, Santa Fe, or Red River—you’re the VIP guest at the snow party. For you, the snow usually starts flirting around late October. It’s that awkward, flaky dusting that looks pretty but melts by lunchtime, like a bad first date that gives you a little hope. By mid-November, it’s serious. The ski resorts start chirping, and your neighbor is out there scraping his windshield with a CD case because his ice scraper vanished last spring.
One year, I drove up to Taos on the first weekend of November. I left Albuquerque in shorts and flip-flops, feeling like a genius. Two hours later, I was stuck behind a Subaru doing 12 miles per hour, white-knuckling the steering wheel while snowflakes the size of cotton balls plastered my windshield. That is New Mexico snow season. It doesn’t give you a warning text; it just shows up.
Down Here in the Lowlands, We Play a Different Game
Now, for those of us in the Rio Grande Valley—Albuquerque, Las Cruces, or even Roswell—the snow is a moody guest. It usually doesn’t make its grand entrance until December or even January. And even then, it’s not a guarantee. You might just get a dusting that looks like someone sprinkled powdered sugar on a burnt cookie. The locals react like it’s the apocalypse. Everyone forgets how to drive, and the grocery stores sell out of milk and bread faster than a Taylor Swift concert.
I swear, the first snow in Albuquerque is a comedy show. People post pictures of a single snowflake on their mailbox like it’s a trophy. “Batten down the hatches!” they yell, while the snow stops falling fifteen minutes later. The real action happens when a storm dumps two inches. That’s a “blizzard” in southern New Mexico. Two inches shuts down the school district. The city sends out plows that are usually busy pushing sand, and everyone looks at the sky like it’s a personal betrayal.
Will New Mexico have a snowy winter?
