C-c-c-cold way to start a Monday

Snow - eastern New Mexico's and west Texas' old friend or foe, depending on your perspective - returned to the area for the first time in nearly two years late Sunday.

The snowfall was likely celebrated by students at Grady, Melrose, Farwell, Texico, Muleshoe and Fort Sumner schools, which either canceled or delayed classes Monday as a result of the overnight storm.

The 175 people in the Clovis area who were left without power, according to Xcel Energy spokesman Wes Reeves, were probably not as enthused.

Reeves wrote in a message to The News that 142 customers on the east side of Clovis were without power for about three hours due to malfunctioning equipment. The other outages were weather related and resolved within about two hours of being reported.

Clovis Civic Center General Manager Misty Bertrand said the building was without power from about 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday and electricity was restored quickly enough where no events were affected.

All told eastern New Mexico residents saw a range from a light dusting in Portales all the way to 3 inches in Grady, according to the National Weather Service and other local sources.

According to Chuck Jones, a meteorologist with the NWS in Albuquerque, reports dating to 1949 show the average date of the region's first snowfall is Dec. 9; the earliest measurable snowfall occurred Oct. 16, 1999, when the area received 2 inches.

Bryan Niece, senior research assistant at the Agricultural Science Center located about 15 miles north of Clovis, said this year's November snowfall should not be interpreted as a hard winter ahead, though some may draw that conclusion.

"I've been doing this for 13 years and it's pretty normal to have snow this early," Niece said. "It's not really anything unusual but we forget and we think, 'Oh my gosh it's here early,' but no, it's not."

Niece said about 1.5 inches of snow fell at the ag research center.

Dwight Koehn, a hydrometeorlogical technician with the NWS in Albuquerque, said eastern New Mexico's last snowfall occurred Jan. 6, 2017, in Portales.

He said temperatures Monday at the Clovis Municipal Airport were as low as 15.

Airport Director Josh Matekovic estimated around half an inch at the airport when the flurries stopped falling around 6 a.m. Monday morning.

Other snowfall totals in Curry County reported on the NWS website include between 1 to 3 inches in Grady and between 1.5 to 2 inches in Broadview.

NWS reported half an inch in Portales, though Patrick Kircher, the Roosevelt County agriculture agent, said he saw just a light dusting at his Portales home that did not even cover his back yard.

Joe Merchant, meteorologist with the NWS in Lubbock, said the highest snowfall total in the west Texas area came in Friona, which received 3.5 inches.

Clovis Fire Chief Mike Nolen told The News there were a few accidents in Clovis as a result of the storm.

He said at 6:40 a.m. there was a two-car accident at the corner of Brady and Thornton when a car slid on ice through a stop sign, though nobody was transported to the hospital.

Nolen said a pair of fire hydrants were hit on Monday, one at 9:10 a.m. when a vehicle slid into a hydrant and flipped on its side at Seventh and Ash and later at 10:19 p.m. at 308 N. West St.

He said the driver involved in the first accident was not transported to the hospital and first responders did not locate the driver at the scene of the second hydrant accident.

Lt. Chris Williams wrote in an email to The News that Portales did not receive much snowfall and did not have any reports of car accidents as a result of the storm.