Sevilleta News

April 2012 - Spring has sprung early

May 6, 2012

April on the Sevilleta supposedly has an average precipitation of just about a half an inch - 12.0 mm. In reality it seems like it never gets this average. Rather it seems to be either much greater than that or much less than that. This year it was considerably greater due to the single storm event at the beginning of the month. The refuge-wide average was 21 mm (0.83") with a range of 14.2 mm at Red Tank in the Ladrons to 24.4 mm at Cerro Montoso. This was almost double the average total precipitation for the first 3 months of 2012 on the refuge.

March 2012 - As La Nina would dictate... warm and dry

March came in like a lion with roaring winds across the state. There were more than a few more even windier days with gusts up over 50 mph on them 18th. March was certainly warmer than normal but this was primarily due to elevated day time highs. The average lows actually ran below normal and with most lows running near or below normal. The daily average temperatures ran about a half a degree centigrade above normal. There were a few big temperature dips as well as cold fronts rolled through.

New Sevilleta Gunnison's Prairie Dog Study Receives Award

Understanding climate effects on movement and daily activity patterns of Gunnison's prarie dogs - that's the title of a project proposal to the New Mexico Game and Fish Department which received ~$17k award recently.

February 2012 - La Nina Is not letting any precipitation in

March 7, 2012

February cooled off after the warm January. It also dried out... especially in the Sevilleta region.

Multiple storms rolled through New Mexico during the month with variable amounts of punch. The Sevilleta did not end up being in line for any with the bigger amounts of moisture. The refuge-wide average of 1.2 mm was far below even the meager February normal average of 8.6 mm (0.34"). This is actually only the 7th driest February in the 23 year Sev record.

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Prairie Dog Webcam

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