After 48 hours of rain across New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Mexico, the immediate danger from Hurricane Polo — now a tropical storm — has shifted from the falling water to the runoff it leaves behind.
Carter Greulich is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. He said that the state is on the back end of a storm system linked to Tropical Storm Polo and a low-pressure system moving in from the west.
The storm changed course, dropping rain on parts of west Texas and Oklahoma, but it has since combined with another system and now communities across the Mountain West are expected to get rain through Thursday.
For northern New Mexico, the forecast still carries a flood watch through midnight along and north of the Interstate 40 corridor. Forecasters expect another 1 to 2 inches widely, with isolated totals of 3 to 4 inches possible at higher elevations.
That rain could keep flash flooding going and swell rivers, including the Pecos east of Santa Fe, where a river flood warning was in effect. Greulich also described a small but nonzero possibility of mudslides or landslides on steep mountain slopes. In Eddy County, including Artesia, already flooded roads remained closed; water will take time to drain even with little additional rain expected.
Farther south, flood warnings reflected reports of inundated roads on New Mexico State Road 246 west of Roswell and into Lincoln County near Ruidoso. Most of southern New Mexico faced only isolated to scattered storms later in the day, but saturated burn scars near Ruidoso remained a concern if storms passed overhead. Greulich characterized that threat as low-confidence — not impossible.
Beyond Wednesday, the state looked mostly dry until early or midweek next week, though scattered showers and thunderstorms could return. Greulich said rainfall projections for those storms were not concerning at the time of the interview. For communities coping with floodwater, however, the forecast offers no instant reset: water must recede before impacts ease and damages can be calculated.
Heavy rains impacted parts of southern Colorado and the entire southern and eastern portions of that state, along with northern New Mexico, central Oklahoma and western Kansas, are under flood watch. Small pockets of New Mexico and Arizona were also still under flood warning.
