Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff report
Brace yourself.
Eastern New Mexico can expect freezing rain, high winds, maybe some snow and certainly hazardous driving conditions from 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Xcel Energy officials on Thursday were preparing for the possibility of widespread power outages across the region.
The National Weather Service on Thursday issued an ice storm warning for all of eastern New Mexico from 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Saturday.
NWS expects one-tenth to one-third of an inch of ice with light accumulations of snow possible on top of the ice.
Precipitation is expected to become widespread Friday before tapering off Saturday morning.
In addition, meteorologists expect winds at 15-25 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph.
Temperatures will be in the 20s all day Friday and much of Saturday before warming into the low 40s on Sunday, forecasters said.
“It will definitely be some ‘interesting’ driving conditions. It may be good that everybody will be full of turkey and hopefully at home sleeping when this hits,” said Troy Marshall, a meteorological technician with NWS in Albuquerque.
Marshall said Friday's high of about 29 degrees will happen about 7 a.m. and temperatures will fall throughout the day.
Forecasters said they do not expect whiteout conditions because snow will be light, but ice will be on the highways through Saturday and into Sunday morning.
Light sleet and freezing rain are expected to continue much of Saturday, Marshall said.
Sunday will also see a chance of rain, but temperatures will rise above freezing, he said.
New Mexico road conditions:
Phone: 511 or 800-432-4269
Texas road conditions:
http://conditions.drivetexas.org/current/
Phone: 800-452-9292
Xcel Energy:
If your power goes out: 800-895-1999
