Taos News

‘Out of the drought’

By GEOFFREY PLANT gplant@taosnews.com

Although it may have felt a little like the Pacific Northwest here over the past couple of weeks, Taos County accumulated only slightly over an “average” amount of precipitation

in the first three weeks of May, according to weather and climate scientists.

“It’s not unusual,” said Brian Guyer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “It’s just been so dry for the last three years that people forget

pretty easily that it actually does rain in May. It’s been so long since we’ve seen patterns like that here, this is a welcome return compared to what we saw last year, when we had smoke and hot temperatures and wind every day.”

What is unusual, however, is the number of days it’s rained in the Taos area so far this month, particularly during last week’s “moist and active May weather pattern,” which this week was supplanted with what the weather service calls a “typical May pattern.” Eight days of measurable rainfall were logged in Ranchos de Taos between May 1-21, for example, amounting to nearly an inch of rain. By Tuesday (May 24), an inch of measurable rainfall had fallen over 10 days.

Over the past 12 years, according to data reported in the same Ranchos de Taos area via the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network — known by its acronym, CoCoRaHS — an average of 0.71 inches of rain fell on average in the first three weeks of May over an average of just 3 days. Official weather station precipitation data is spotty in the Taos area, according to Guyer and Dave DuBois, state climatologist and associate professor at New Mexico State University, who installed a new station last year at the Taos Soil and Water Conservation District building.

But according to CoCoRaHS data, when all of Taos County was experiencing extreme drought last year, there was no rain in the first three weeks of May in Ranchos, and just 0.02 inches measured the entire month. A healthy monsoon season broke the dry spell, however, and brought between 3 and 4 inches of rain to the Taos and Ranchos area in July alone.

“I think we may be out of the drought,” said Tony Benson, who runs 50 head of cattle, plus 40 calves “so far” this year on his 6,000-acre Wolf Springs Ranch, located on the west side of US 64 across from the Greater World Earthship Community.

With no acequias or irrigation, Benson is “entirely dependent on the rainfall,” which, during the past two decades of drought, has mostly been insufficient to support grazing.

“We averaged about 6 or 7 inches of rain per year for the last 25 years,” which is roughly “half as much as we’re supposed to get,” he said, noting that he decided to try planting Russian wildrye, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture describes as an “exceptionally drought tolerant” pasture grass, during that time.

“It’s been very tough,” he said. “Usually, up until last year’s monsoon, we’ve been feeding alfalfahay year round. Last summer, we stopped, and we’re going to stop in the next week or two, because I have Russian wildrye that’s already 2-3 feet high. And this is the first year in 10 years that I’ve had germination of grass seed other than Russian wildrye.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor currently forecasts that no-drought conditions will persist in most of New Mexico, including Taos County, through August. Depending on the strength of the monsoon, which typically begins around July 1, normal conditions could persist moving.

Following the monsoon last year, precipitation continued over the winter months, leading to an aboveaverage snowpack in the mountains of North Central New Mexico and around the headwaters of the Rio Grande in southern Colorado. Cool temperatures and no sustained deluges of rain is so far allowing reservoirs along the Rio Grande below Taos to fill gradually. It’s also contributing to “a great year” for irrigation in Taos, according to Bobby Jaramillo, mayordomo of the Acequia Madre del Rio Pueblo.

“Runoff’s a little bit high this year, and with that rain, we’ve had to adjust little ditches and dammings on our side,” he said. “It’s been busy. It’s one of those years that you got to keep the flow going, because if things like the flume and the headgate and stuff get backed up — you don’t want that to get backed up.”

But bolstered by rain, the spring runoff is contributing to hazardous conditions along the Rio Grande and tributaries like the Rio Fernando de Taos and the Rio Pueblo de Taos. A man drowned while rafting the Rio Grande south of Pilar on May 6, and first responders downstream have reported rescuing 19 people out of the Rio Grande near Corrales so far this month.

Although the New Mexico Department of Transportation hasn’t had any reports of rain- or floodrelated incidents on roads or bridges within Taos County, according to James Murray, DOT District 5 public information officer, the National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Rio Grande at Embudo last Friday (May 19).

“The runoff is beginning to really increase across the Rio Grande Basin,” Guyer said. And the river levels are reaching a stage at which it’s starting to become hazardous. Especially in the immediate vicinity of the river.”

The U.S. Geological Survey gauge at Embudo — one of the federal government’s oldest river gauges — showed the Rio Grande at around 9 feet on Tuesday (May 23), with flows climbing past 5,000 cubic feet per second; the National Weather Service predicted that the river would rise to 10 feet and officially enter flood stage on Thursday (May 25).

“Water is about to flow over the center section of the low swinging bridge upstream of the Embudo Gauging Station,” the weather service advised on Monday. “This wooden bridge is used by local residents who live on the west side of the river. No significant damages are expected until the river rises to 12 feet or higher.”

Median streamflow at the Embudo gauge is about 1,600 cfs; David Bishop, the rafter who drowned, was navigating conditions around 3,000 cfs. The greatest recorded streamflow at Embudo occurred during a flood in June 1903, when the river was roaring past the gauge at 16,200 cfs.

In addition to the agricultural community and expert river runners, bird watchers are especially pleased with the wet conditions this spring, which are enhancing bird habitats.

“If you want to see what excess water will create, look at the American dipper, which was [early American conservationist] John Muir’s favorite bird,” Jeff Donaldson, a Taos birder, said with excitement. “It’s creating conditions for increased habitat. This type of runoff and rain could cause yellow headed blackbirds to come to Fred Baca park.”

“I’ve never seen it like this,” he said. “It’s not just Fred Baca Park; I was above Shady Brook along the Rio Fernando — there were dippers there — and you could have taken a kayak down it!”

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2023-05-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://taosnews.pressreader.com/article/282016151696614

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