Eternal snow…that’s what it feels like in Southern Colorado this week. The low pressure remained stubbornly stuck as it moved through the Four Corners area before returning to the Albuquerque low. Let’s talk about what an Albuquerque miscarriage is.

Basically, an Albuquerque low is a strong low pressure system that tracks northeast near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then southeast Colorado. Winds rotating counterclockwise around low pressure. Where you are relative to low altitude determines your wind direction and therefore the impact of your storm.

These systems form when a dip in our jet stream, called a trough, dives south from the Pacific US and separates the low from the rest of the jet stream, which normally serves as our storm conveyor belt. We call this isolated low a cutting low. After the storm leaves the conveyor belt, it will move towards New Mexico. The storm then moves from the northeast towards southeastern Colorado. This brings updraft winds from the southeast, east, and finally northeast into Southern Colorado.

Warm, wet air, typically from a southerly flow, then rises above the cold surface air. This increases precipitation due to the influence of the low power, which determines the strength of strong winds. Stronger low…stronger winds.

Finally, it helps if we have a pattern like we’ve seen this week where high pressure over the plains prevents the storm from moving anywhere quickly. This leads to prolonged storm events that produce more snow in Southern Colorado than in northern areas like Denver.

Generally speaking, the Albuquerque lowlands are our best environment for snow. Next week, our storm conveyor belt returns to a more west-to-east flow, meaning there will be no stuck systems in the near future.

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