NWS ABQ La Nina Spring Precipitation CD5

Central Valley

March-April-May Precipitation

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Statistics for stations In the Rio Grande Valley, particularly Socorro, exhibit a fair amount of variability during La Niña events. While the average precipitation deficit during strong events is about 47% at Albuquerque, it is 72% at Socorro and higher than the average departure for all events. Additionally, during three of six strong events, spring precipitation was above normal. Note that Socorro is quite dry during the March-April-May period (average precipitation = 1.46 inches), typical of the lower Rio Grande Valley and southwest New Mexico, and just one wet event can raise the average to above normal. At Albuquerque, all springs during which a strong La Niña was present had below normal precipitation.

A description of the graphs is located at the bottom of the page.

spring precip for albuquerque during la nina events

Percent of Longterm Average for all La Niña Events = 67% , for strong La Niña Events = 47%

spring precip for socorro during la nina events

Percent of Longterm Average for all La Niña Events = 54% , for strong La Niña Events = 72%

Precipitation values for 3-month periods during 19 La Niña Events since 1949-50 are plotted with respect to the long term precipitation average, listed to the right of the graph. The precipitation totals for each 3-month period are plotted above or below each bar. Years for which the La Niña Event was considered to be strong are colored in purple. "M" represents a 3-month period with missing data. Finally, the percents of longterm normal for all La Niña events and for the strong La Niña events are listed below each graph.