Weather to take turn for the frigid

Attention eastern New Mexico: It’s time to start bundling up againas temperatures in the area are expected to dip down into the 20s this week.

Though today’s forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-60s, the warm weather will only last until Tuesday and a low of 21 degrees will cool everything down.

From there Wednesday’s high will be in the low 40s, and Thursdays will hit in the mid-30s. Nightly lows are expected to be in the mid-teens by Wednesday, and remain there steadily through the weekend.

Snow is not anticipated for the area.

“Temperatures will cool with each day through the coming work week, especially across eastern New Mexico, as a strong and broad long-wave trough carves its way into the central and eastern US and a shortwave trough dives southward into the western US. Models aren’t agreeing too well yet on the track, depth, or timing of the western US shortwave trough. However, they are coming into some general agreement on a couple of back door cold fronts,” said the National Weather Service’s local forecast discussion.

The first cold front this week is expected to pass through the area Monday night, causing a minor cooling that will not carry over much into the next day.

Stronger fronts are expected Wednesday night and Thursday.

“The second front will bring an arctic airmass with a long duration subfreezing temperature event possible across much of the eastern plains through the latter half of the week and into the weekend. Depending on how the western US shortwave trough develops, there may also be a chance for snow to develop across parts of northern and western New Mexico on Wednesday night,” the report said.

In preparation for the upcoming cold fronts, the lowest high temperature so far for this fall-winter was 25 degrees on Oct. 27 according to the Agriculture Science Center at Clovis. The coldest temperature so far for this fall-winter stretch was 9 degrees reported on Jan. 12 and Dec. 31.