1 of 2 | Vehicles impacted by a mudslide are abandoned on the road as a storm sweeps through Southern California, bringing torrential rains and high winds, in Topanga, Calif., on Monday Downtown Los Angeles recorded 5.62 inches of rain in 24 hours. Remnants of the storm moved east into Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Photo by Etienne Laurent/EPA-EFE
Feb. 11 (UPI) — Forecasters issued a winter storm advisory for parts of eastern New Mexico on Sunday as the remnants of a massive atmospheric river storm that pummeled California last week move east, with the Texas Panhandle and central Oklahoma in its path.
The National Weather Service warned of icy, snow-packed roads and potentially dangerous travel as the slow-moving front headed east, giving parts of New Mexico their first measurable snowfall of the year and dumping more than 3 feet of snow over three days in northern Arizona.
Arizona Snowbowl, a ski hill in Flagstaff’s 12,600 foot San Francisco peaks range, welcomed 55 inches from the recent storms, bringing its snowfall total to 140 inches this season.
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All lifts and trails at the ski area were open Sunday, and the hill has not resorted to making artificial snow, thanks to the new snowfall.
Farther south, a rogue thunderstorm, replete with dangerous flashes of lightning and blowing hail, dropped a strange mix of wind, rain and freezing slush, known as graupel, on parts of suburban Phoenix and left neighborhoods and intersections covered in a blanket of wet, sloppy slush, but gave the appearance of freshly fallen snow at night.
As the front moved east, the National Weather Service in Albuquerque said temperatures were in the mid-30s, which is as many as 25 degrees below normal.
“Hopefully, it will diminish by sunset,” Jennifer Shoemake, a meteorologist for the weather service in Albuquerque, said Sunday.
She said the storm system appeared to be headed next to the Texas Panhandle and central Oklahoma, where warnings already were in effect.
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The weather service forecast up to 8 inches of snow Sunday in the west Texas city of Lubbock, with 1.3 inches already on the ground in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
The storms are the remnants of the atmospheric river that dumped heavy rain and snow in California and other parts of the West beginning early Wednesday. It caused power outages, street flooding and hundreds of destructive mudslides around Los Angeles.
Shoemake said Albuquerque received 4 inches of snow Saturday, with the surrounding mountains reporting between 6 and 9 inches.
“Likely some decent skiing conditions,” Shoemake said.
The heavy snow allowed the Sandia Peak Ski Area in Albuquerque to open for the first time since 2022. The hill reported top-to-bottom skiing open across 300 acres on all of its 35 trails.
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“It’s like we are in the clouds up there,” snowboarder Jovanni Orozco told Albuquerque TV station KOB. “Literally, it is like low you can’t even see nothing and then the snow just covers your goggles, but it’s fun!”
The inclement weather forced the National Park Service to close the Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos, N.M., on Saturday afternoon, but the agency reopened it Sunday after snow removal operations.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico plans to build new gates at four campus entrances along Central that will close nightly.
The gates will replace manual barriers in a project expected to cost about $1.5 million.
The Board of Regents approved the security upgrades for the UNM campus.
University officials said the gates will automatically close nightly from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
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The gates will go in near Princeton Drive, Stanford Drive, Yale Boulevard and Terrace Street on the south end of campus.
A current rendering shows the gate completely blocking the road. Officials said the change will reduce unauthorized traffic and allow police officers to focus more effectively on prevention and response.
Construction will start in May. University officials hope to finish the project by September.
A 9-year-old boy who begged to be released from an immigration detention center so he could attend his state spelling bee has been freed with his family, their lawyer said Wednesday.
Deiver Henao Jimenez made the plea during a video call this month with children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso.
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” Deiver said on the call, which was later shared on Accurso’s social media pages. “Nothing is good here.”
He and his parents, asylum-seekers from Colombia, had been held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas since early March, when they were detained during a routine immigration check-in in New Mexico, according to their lawyer, Corey Sullivan Martin.
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ICE freed the family on humanitarian parole Wednesday, about a week after Martin filed a request for their release and days after NBC News reported on their case.
Deiver Henao Jimenez finished third in a Spanish spelling bee organized by Las Cruces, N.M., Public Schools.Las Cruces Public Schools
His elementary school principal wrote a letter in mid-March supporting the family’s release, which was later delivered to immigration officials, describing Deiver as “a dedicated student with excellent attendance and high marks.”
Sullivan Martin said Deiver is eager to return to school, rejoin his gifted and talented classes and get back to practicing his spelling words.
“I don’t see how it was necessary at all to detain a child who was doing exactly what we want children to do,” Sullivan Martin said.
The family planned to return to New Mexico, she said, where they will continue checking in with immigration officials while their case proceeds.
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The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Deiver was released a day after ICE freed another child whose case drew widespread attention following a video call with Accurso. Gael, a 5-year-old boy with developmental disabilities, had experienced worsening medical issues while he was detained at Dilley, his parents said.
The facility has faced growing scrutiny from immigration lawyers and advocates, who say children there have struggled to access adequate medical care and education in an environment where lights remain on around the clock and officers stand guard. Some families have described poor food and long waits for medical attention.
DHS has disputed those accounts, saying families are provided appropriate care in a facility designed for their needs.
After her video meetings with the children, Accurso — known for her signature pink headband and singsong delivery — called for Dilley to be shut down and for families to be returned to their communities.
During their conversation, Deiver told Accurso he missed his friends and said the food at Dilley made his stomach hurt. But he was most worried about getting out in time to compete in New Mexico’s state spelling bee in May after he earned a spot by placing third at a regional competition.
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“We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee,” Accurso said last week. “I just never thought those words would go together.”
