Springtime chaos in New Mexico

Springtime is here. It’s pretty easy to tell our weather has gone bat crap crazy.

A little over a week ago we had epic sandstorms that we had to drive through to a doctor’s appointment in Lubbock. Great mileage going, not so good coming back.

The sand in the air was epic that day but apparently last year must have been low on moisture because the tumbleweed action wasn’t much to speak of.

A short week or so before that we had record cold across the area that had pipes freezing.

Last weekend we started spring off on the right foot with outstanding weather followed by an ominous change Sunday night. We had pretty much everything thrown at us the next few days — blowing snow, sleet, a thunderclap or two, high winds, something that looked like rain.

The biggest curiosity of the week was a weather warning about flooding for Lubbock with an overlaying red flag fire warning that was never canceled during the flood.

It all brought to mind a story told by an old cowboy, singer, songwriter about changing weather. Here’s Tom Munn’s take on Western Slope Colorado weather:

The story begins when Munn happens by a swimming hole on a hot, dry day during a drought.

He dives from the diving board and as he gets to the apex of his dive he notices the swimming hole has completely dried up because of the drought.

On the way down, to his relief, a terrible storm sets in and fills the pond back up.

But at the end of the dive he hits his head on something hard because a Norther had blown in and frozen the pond solid.

When he comes to he’s in the sand trying to tread water.

I know Munn’s exaggerating just a little because I lived there and I know the weather on Colorado’s Western Slope is pretty tame compared to ours here on the Plains.

Things are finally leveling out a bit weather-wise now and it’s getting warmer and warmer. I know that brings the next change to the seasons. That’s right, elm trees are going to start budding out and allergies will be raging.

Ahhh spring!

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]