A winter storm that arrived Wednesday in Northern New Mexico and is expected to continue through Friday — dumping a foot of snow or more — has led to dangerous driving conditions, widespread power outages and numerous closures of schools and government offices.
Public Service Company of New Mexico said in a news release early Thursday afternoon some outages could last overnight.
·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe Public Schools announced early Thursday morning campuses were closed for the day due to unsafe road conditions. It was not a remote learning day, the district noted in an announcement on its website.
The city of ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe announced its offices, libraries, recreation centers, senior centers and the Municipal Court were closed Thursday due to snowy and icy road conditions. ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe County facilities and state government offices in ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe and Albuquerque also are closed.
"Freezing temperatures are slowing efforts to address icy road conditions," the city said in a news release.Â
Los Alamos County has closed all of its nonessential services.
Meanwhile, the state's largest electric utility continued to wrangle with power outages.Â
PNM reported 700 outages at a time throughout the day, affecting tens of thousands of customers in the ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe and Albuquerque areas. More than 32,000 were still affected around 3 p.m., some who had gone without power for nearly a full day. It seemed that as power was restored in some neighborhoods, new outages appeared in other areas.
Outages began occurring Wednesday afternoon, many caused by downed trees.Â
Hundreds of homes in central and southern ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe and dozens in a northwestern neighborhood lost power Wednesday and still lacked service Thursday afternoon.Â
Hundreds of homes also lacked power in La Cienega, San Felipe Pueblo, Cochiti and Santo Domingo pueblos, Peña Blanca and Algodones, while thousands were affected by outages in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Rio Rancho and surrounding communities. The outages stretched along the Interstate 25 corridor down south of Bosque Farms.
PNM issued a news release Thursday morning alerting customers of widespread outages and warning residents to avoid downed power lines.
"PNM has mobilized more than 100 crew members who are working to restore multiple outages, many of which are concentrated in the North Valley of Albuquerque as well as Corrales," the news release said. "Due to the large number of smaller outages and ongoing severe weather, PNM is not yet able to estimate when power will be restored, and urges affected customers to be prepared to be out of service for an extended period.
"PNM also asks that drivers be extremely cautious and alert for PNM crews who may be working on roadsides, so that they may safely restore power as quickly as possible."
For more information on outages, visit .
Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative reported over 11,000 customers were without power in communities north of ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe Thursday morning.Â
The storm was affecting the ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe New Mexican, as well, with several newspaper delivery drivers stuck in the snow and stranded on their routes. The New Mexican has lifted the paywall on its website to give readers access to updates on the storm.Â
The storm was a boon for ski basins. Ski ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe reported 16 inches of fresh snow Thursday morning, while Pajarito Mountain announced it has enough snow that it will open Saturday, five weeks before its scheduled opening date. The mountain received 29 inches of snow in the last 72 hours, the resort reported in a news release.
“This is historic for Pajarito Mountain. It’s been about 40 years since Pajarito has been able to open before Thanksgiving,†general manager Jasen Bellomy said in a statement.
“This is an amazing way to kick off our ski season," he said, adding the resorts expects another 15 to 25 inches from the storm.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation was setting up for a long winter storm Thursday morning, mobilizing scores of snowplows and putting staff on long, rotating shifts.
Crews were on 12-hour shifts, and in District 5, which covers a swath of Northern and Central New Mexico including ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties, the department had scheduled over 100 snowplows, agency spokesperson Kristine Mihelcic said.
She added the department is salting and putting other materials on roads to help stay ahead, but that because snowfall has been continuous, snow was still accumulating on roads, much of the state was seeing severe driving conditions.
The department has worked to minimize road closures, Mihelcic said, though a few crashes — including one about 12 miles north of ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe on Interstate 25 — have caused some lane closures and traffic.
Among other closures on Thursday, according to the department’s website, included: Interstate 40 about a mile east of Clines Corners due to severe winter weather; I-25 between mile markers 454 and 460, near Raton Pass, due to inclement weather; U.S. 64 between about a mile east of Raton and Clayton for snowpacked, icy roads and low visibility; and U.S. 56 from about Springer to the Texas state line for similar reasons.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.