Snow surprises Portales

PNT Staff Reports

Portales schoolchildren got to do something yesterday they haven’t been able to do within the city limits for about a year—they had snowball fights. Their fun could be short-lived, however, as snow flurries were expected to end by early this morning and temperatures today are expected to rise into the 40’s.

Priscilla Mestas, assistant superintendent of Portales schools, said radio stations would be notified early this morning if snow conditions worsened overnight and schools needed to change schedules.

Meanwhile on Rick Ledbetter’s wheat farm just outside of Portales, “maybe an inch” of snow settled Wednesday.

“It (the moisture) will certainly help the crop, any amount will help but the crop isn’t going to be as good as last year’s crop,” Ledbetter said. “We just need more normal rain amounts during the spring to grow a good crop. It’s been suffering (due to the dry winter).”

Roosevelt County Extension agent Floyd McAlister said the snow amount wasn’t nearly enough to offset dry winter weather when it comes to the area’s dryland wheat.

Portales resident Kim Faver said her two sons staged a snowball showdown in the family’s backyard.

“It (the snow) is great. We needed the moisture,” she said. “I was working in Clovis all day and I think Clovis got a little more snow than we did.”