textproduct: El Paso

KEY MESSAGES

Updated at 145 PM MST Fri Jan 30 2026

- Dry conditions and light winds will persist through the weekend and into the mid portion of next week.

- Seasonable temperatures Friday and Saturday, warming to above normal Sunday through Tuesday.

- A cold front will bring breezy east winds and slightly cooler air midweek.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 145 PM MST Fri Jan 30 2026

Clear skies now prevail across the area, the variably thick high clouds we saw the past couple of days have been swept off to the southeast in wake of a trough high aloft.

Not many changes to the forecast. Auto-populated NBM grids mostly left alone, except for near term winds and overnight minimum temperatures for the next several days. Conditions are ideal for radiational cooling, and 10s dewpoints are creeping into the lowlands. So expect the usual cold spots will dip into the 10s in the Gila, along with some of the canyons in the Sacramentos, with mid/upper-20s across the Mesilla and Hatch Valleys tonight. Overnight temps will increase a bit Sunday and Monday nights.

Midweek precip chances, as noted by the previous shift, are all but gone. Next chance for precip won't be until next weekend at the earliest, as subtropical moisture lurking to our south tries to get scooped up by a low off Baja California, but that's pretty much the scenario for mid-week that fell apart, and confidence remains low.

The weak backdoor incursion for Saturday now looks to stay east of the mountains. The most notable weather is some westerly breeziness perhaps Monday afternoon as an upper level trough moving across the central Rockies produces weak lee troughing in northeastern New Mexico.

AVIATION

(18Z TAFS) Issued at 1105 AM MST Fri Jan 30 2026

Light and variable winds and clear skies through the period.

FIRE WEATHER

Issued at 145 PM MST Fri Jan 30 2026

Minimal fire weather concerns through the period. Temperatures will warm to near-seasonal on Saturday, then slightly above normal on Sunday, but we'll still see rather cold nights in valley locations, especially in the higher terrain areas. Minimum RH values will generally range from 20 to 40 percent, highest in the eastern lowlands. A few spots in SW New Mexico could drop briefly into the upper-10s this weekend.

Unfavorable vent rates will return this weekend, with max ventilation dropping below 30,000 knot-feet in the Gila, and even lower in the higher elevations of the Sacramentos on Saturday. But improvement is expected on Monday as warmer temperatures arrive and mixing heights increase.

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

El Paso 32 60 34 64 / 0 0 0 0 Sierra Blanca 30 56 31 59 / 0 0 0 0 Las Cruces 29 57 31 61 / 0 0 0 0 Alamogordo 26 56 28 61 / 0 0 0 0 Cloudcroft 24 39 29 46 / 0 0 0 0 Truth or Consequences 31 59 33 62 / 0 0 0 0 Silver City 29 57 33 60 / 0 0 0 0 Deming 28 61 33 63 / 0 0 0 0 Lordsburg 29 60 32 62 / 0 0 0 0 West El Paso Metro 34 60 34 63 / 0 0 0 0 Dell City 24 53 23 53 / 0 0 0 0 Fort Hancock 29 63 30 66 / 0 0 0 0 Loma Linda 25 53 26 57 / 0 0 0 0 Fabens 32 63 34 65 / 0 0 0 0 Santa Teresa 33 59 32 62 / 0 0 0 0 White Sands HQ 32 58 31 61 / 0 0 0 0 Jornada Range 25 58 26 62 / 0 0 0 0 Hatch 26 62 28 65 / 0 0 0 0 Columbus 30 60 32 63 / 0 0 0 0 Orogrande 28 55 29 59 / 0 0 0 0 Mayhill 23 54 27 58 / 0 0 0 0 Mescalero 21 50 25 56 / 0 0 0 0 Timberon 24 47 27 53 / 0 0 0 0 Winston 24 57 28 57 / 0 0 0 0 Hillsboro 32 59 34 61 / 0 0 0 0 Spaceport 27 58 29 62 / 0 0 0 0 Lake Roberts 16 59 19 61 / 0 0 0 0 Hurley 28 58 31 61 / 0 0 0 0 Cliff 23 64 26 67 / 0 0 0 0 Mule Creek 19 62 22 64 / 0 0 0 0 Faywood 32 56 34 59 / 0 0 0 0 Animas 29 61 30 63 / 0 0 0 0 Hachita 32 59 33 62 / 0 0 0 0 Antelope Wells 26 60 28 62 / 0 0 0 0 Cloverdale 34 58 36 59 / 0 0 0 0

EPZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

TX...None. NM...None.