‘Snow drought’ observed across the West, amid higher-than-average winter temps - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Even though precipitation across the West to date is average or close to it, high temperatures across the region have turned snow into rain, leading federal meteorologists in a Thursday announcement to declare a “snow drought.”
As of Dec. 7, snow covered about 90,000 square miles across the West, the smallest area covered on that date since at least 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
Nearly every region in the West experienced record or near-record November warm temperatures, according to the NOAA.
While meteorologists determined the most “snow drought” runs across mountain ranges in California, Oregon and Washington, New Mexico’s snow cover measures one-quarter of the median level usually observed on Dec. 10, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The center’s map shows snow mostly along the state’s border with Colorado on Wednesday, as well as some in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque and a little sprinkled across the Gila National Forest.
New Mexico’s roughly 1,400 square miles of snow cover detected Dec. 10 marks the lowest on that date since 2018, according to the center, when just about 80 square miles across the state had visible snow.
The highest Dec.10 total over the last 25 years was observed in 2010, when snow blanketed more than 25,000 square miles. That’s the same year that the state saw the most area covered in the center’s history: 56,000 square miles covered on Jan. 31 of that year.
The NOAA announcement noted that New Mexico’s low snow cover also reflects its relatively dry water year overall, particularly compared with next-door Arizona, which experienced its 9th-wettest autumn on record.
Across most of New Mexico, the snow-water equivalent, which measures the amount of water in snowpack, ran 75% of normal, except in southwest New Mexico, where it’s only 20%.
The Thursday drought update from the NOAA noted that even though the region is currently experiencing “snow drought,” conditions could change quickly.
“Winter just began,” the NOAA said in its announcement. “And snowpack can change dramatically with a single storm this early in the season.”
New Mexico’s peak snow cover typically occurs Dec. 31, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center’s analysis, when satellites can usually detect about 20,000 square miles of New Mexico mountains covered in white.
Ghost Ranch plans to protect 6,000 acres of land under conservation plan Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
The sweeping vistas that inspired painter Georgia O’Keeffe and continue to attract streams of solitude-seeking visitors will be officially made off-limits to future development.
Under a plan to be announced Tuesday, nearly 6,000 acres of land, water and wildlife habitat at the Ghost Ranch near Abiquiú will be protected under a conservation easement.
The easement, which is a voluntary agreement that keeps current private land ownership in place, will allow tours and other current activities to continue. That includes seasonal cattle-grazing by about 25 local ranchers who manage their herds by horseback.
But it will prohibit commercial development in the designated areas into perpetuity, meaning no construction of vacation homes, luxury hotels, data centers or other projects.
David Evans, the CEO of the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center, told reporters the conservation plan has been discussed for years but the different parties involved had been unable to reach a deal.
“I want that experience of this richness and beauty to be preserved, so everyone can experience it the way I have,” said Evans, who took over day-to-day operations of Ghost Ranch last year and grew up visiting the site with his family.
He said the area to be protected includes the Hayden Quarry, a significant site for excavating dinosaur fossils, including the discovery of a species of Rauisuchid, a type of crocodile-like predator.
It also contains several film sites, serving as a backdrop for the 2023 “Oppenheimer” film and the 2008 movie “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” among other films.
The conservation easement plan is being divided into two phases, with the larger first phase on track to be finished by as soon as the end of 2026, said Jonathan Hayden, executive director of the New Mexico Land Conservancy.
A smaller second phase encompassing one of O’Keeffe’s former homes in New Mexico — another is located in nearby Abiquiú — would then be undertaken.
The group is working with the Ghost Ranch foundation on the conservation easement plan, which is being funded with nearly $930,000 from the state’s Land of Enchantment Fund to cover transaction costs. That fund was created by state lawmakers in 2023 as a way to help pay for conservation projects statewide.
Hayden said the conservation easement was not prompted by any specific development plans, but noted the construction of vacation homes in subdivisions along other parts of Abiquiú Lake.
“We think now is the time to be proactive, instead of waiting for the time when someone is proposing that,” he said.
A colorful history amid the red rocks
The Ghost Ranch, which got its name from tales of hauntings by former occupants of the land, existed for decades as a remote northern New Mexico dude ranch and spiritual center.
The 21,000-acre ranch was given to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in the 1950s for use as a retreat center by former owner Arthur Pack, a wealthy environmentalist who had previously sold a parcel of the land to O’Keeffe.
The Kentucky-based church then managed Ghost Ranch until 2018, when it agreed to lease the land to the National Ghost Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit group, for day-to-day operations.
Under the terms of the proposed conservation easement, the New Mexico Land Conservancy will hold the easement in trust. The easements will not affect the 550-acre ranch headquarters that includes a welcome center, horse stables, lodging and museums.
Conservation easements also typically provide tax benefits for landowners, in exchange for giving up future development rights.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham praised the plan, while thanking state officials and nonprofit leaders for making it happen.
“This conservation plan is a great example of what can happen when people work together to preserve what we love about New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
“We’re excited to leave a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy the stunning landscapes and vistas that drew Georgia O’Keeffe to northern New Mexico and continue to define this region’s incomparable beauty,” the governor added.
What will the conservation plan entail?
Currently, all of the land set to be covered by the conservation easement is only open to the public via tours or hikes authorized by Ghost Ranch.
Going forward, Evans said there are still discussions to be had about whether some of the land will be opened to public access.
But he said the conservation plan is intended to keep the Ghost Ranch’s history intact, while also making the site a trailblazer of sorts. He also said additional parts of the land could be protected by similar conservation easements in the future.
During a recent visit, Evans said the native grasslands and rock formations that dot Ghost Ranch look different from day to day, depending on the position of the sun and weather conditions.
For his part, Hayden said the Ghost Ranch project is one of the most exciting projects the Santa Fe-based New Mexico Land Conservancy has worked on its 20-plus year history.
“We want to preserve that view that’s so iconic,” said Hayden.
NM State Fair Board sees new fairgrounds concepts, as first round of spending nears approval - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Members of the New Mexico State Fairgrounds District board, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, got their first chance Thursday to weigh in on three new design concepts for how the 236-acre, state-owned property in the middle of Albuquerque could be transformed.
The Legislature earlier this year created a new board entrusted with up to $500 million in bonding capacity to re-think the fairgrounds, including possibly moving the annual State Fair from its home of 87 years. Stantec, a design firm, released three new concepts this week as it finalizes a master plan, which it will release in February, and opened them up for public comment.
The board also celebrated the State Board of Finance’s approval Tuesday of the first round of funding for the project, a $22.35 million bond package to acquire roughly nine additional acres for the redevelopment. That acquisition will happen regardless of what else transpires at the fairgrounds, according to the governor’s office.
Legislative approval in January is the final step before the board issues those bonds, a signoff that Lujan Grisham said Thursday probably won’t occur without “questions and debate.”
Still, she said Thursday, “Our plan is moving.”
Board members did not vote on the design concepts, but they did ask the firm to ensure final designs allow for affordable and sustainable housing, high-quality jobs and agricultural and food opportunities to create a “food oasis,” as Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa put it, in an area surrounded by vacant grocery stores.
The concepts make clear the potential tradeoffs required to fit all the priorities that have emerged for the project, including housing, a large amphitheater, a performing arts center and a park while also allowing the State Fair to continue in its usual footprint.
Moving the fair, as one of the three concepts envisions, would free up 124 acres for redevelopment, allowing more space for a bigger park, more housing and apartment options and more “community benefits,” including a public-private campus, according to the design firm. It could also mean more job opportunities, including for tech and research, according to Stantec.
Keeping the fair would confine the space for redevelopment to between 43 and 51 acres, meaning potential for sales tax revenue is “medium” and housing opportunities are “limited,” according to a Stantec designer’s presentation Thursday.
Neighborhood associations and community advocates hope the fairgrounds investment will benefit nearby neighborhoods, including the adjacent International District. The area surrounding the fairgrounds has two of the deadliest intersections for pedestrians in New Mexico and high crime rates. It’s also a food desert, thanks in part to recent closures of a nearby CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, and a “heat island,” due to the lack of tree canopy and green space.
The Trust for Public Lands also rates the area as one in the city with the highest need for a public park. Without the State Fair, a park could be as big as 22 acres, according to Stantec, versus between 10 or 11 acres if it remains.
New Sandia supercomputer aims to sharpen simulations safeguarding nuclear arsenal - Hannah Garcia, Albuquerque Journal
Sandia National Laboratories welcomed a new supercomputer this month, one that could reshape simulations and ensure the reliability and safety of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
The prototype system, named Spectra, was built using specialized chips that can analyze code to prioritize tasks in real-time.
“It’s a completely new architecture; it’s a completely new way of doing things,” said James Laros, Sandia senior scientist and project lead. “That’s what the real challenge is — to take what’s already complicated and try to run it on a new architecture that’s never been used before, but has the potential to be superior in some dimension.”
The news comes on the heels of Los Alamos National Laboratory announcing in October the selection of HPE and Nvidia Corp. to build two new supercomputers, named Mission and Vision, expected to be operational by 2027.
Spectra is the first supercomputer to use the new chip architecture, designed by Israel-based NextSilicon. Researchers will test how the system handles national security-related tasks like advanced fluid dynamics simulations, which assess the safety and reliability of nuclear deterrents — think weapons or communications — without underground testing.
Configurations using NextSilicon’s Maverick-2 dual-die accelerators have the potential to show higher performance compared to other technologies. It may also complete tasks using much less power than usual, something Laros said could be a “big win” as access to energy becomes a growing problem.
Laros said Spectra was installed and came online Nov. 1, joining about a dozen other Sandia supercomputers. The system is the second platform involved in the lab’s Vanguard program, an initiative exploring emerging technologies used in advanced simulation and computing applications.
The Vanguard program, overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration, includes work from the nation’s three nuclear weapons labs: Sandia, LANL and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
“There’s all kinds of things that happen in that space. Everything from the actual nuclear weapon to the vehicles, each laboratory has a piece of that pie,” Laros said. “We don’t do this just because it’s good for Sandia — we do it because it’s good for the complex.”
The program’s first supercomputer, named Astra, was the world’s fastest ARM-based system in 2018. Laros said ARM-based chips have been “ubiquitous in the world” for a long time, used in everyday items like cell phones and automobiles, but were never used for high-performance computing.
Astra’s success would pave the way for LANL to install Venado, a partially ARM-based supercomputer built to prioritize performance and workflow efficiency, in 2024.
Currently, Spectra is in its prototyping phase before it can become a “formal system,” Laros said, which can be considered a risky endeavor. Project timelines for advanced architectures like this can span anywhere from six months to a couple of years, he said.
But continuing to build and take a chance on new advanced systems is imperative to Sandia’s mission to protect the U.S. nuclear stockpile, Laros said.
“Let’s say you only had one technology. It could be the greatest technology in the world, and it could do our mission perfectly — but what if it just went away? Then what do we do?” Laros questioned. “We can’t just have one.”
New Mexico education department says $35M shortfall due to overpayment to Gallup schools - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary Mariana Padilla on Thursday presented her department’s budget request to a panel of state lawmakers. What should have been a routine public meeting, one of many like it in the final week of Legislative Finance Committee hearings before the legislative session begins in January, quickly derailed as Padilla explained her agency faces a $35 million shortfall after overpaying one school district.
The overpayment dates to May, she said, when Gallup-McKinley County Schools canceled its contract with online learning company K12, after accusing it of breaching its contract and violating special-education law. As a result, 3,000 students across the state who depended on the district’s online instruction suddenly needed a new online school. Districts in Santa Rosa and Chama stepped up, each welcoming about 1,500 of the affected students into their online programs.
But districts receive state funding based on their enrollment numbers for the prior year, Padilla said, meaning that Gallup-McKinley is still drawing money for the 3,000 virtual students who have been enrolled elsewhere for months. The end result: a $35 million shortfall for the state Public Education Department.
Legislative Finance Chair Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces), told Padilla she shouldn’t expect to receive that $35 million — but should expect to see proposed legislation in 2026 that would prevent “an abuse” like this from happening again. Several lawmakers on the panel agreed.
Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, took it a step further.
“I’m not going to let our school district ruin an entire department’s budget over greed,” he said, after first saying he ought to call the New Mexico State Police over the money, then saying he’d call Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and bring the matter to her attention. Finally, he said he’d consider showing up unannounced to the Gallup-McKinley headquarters Monday and refusing to leave the lobby “until they write a check.”
Gallup-McKinley Deputy Superintendent Jvanna Hanks in a Thursday afternoon phone call told Source NM that she believes the issue is a misunderstanding. The district received funding for services that were already rendered in the prior school year, she said.
“There are components of the funding formula that are included in the current year,” she said. “It could appear that there is duplicate funding. It is actually all within the statutory funding formula.”
Hanks said she welcomed the opportunity to talk the issue over with Muñoz and his colleagues.
After lawmakers had a chance to share their sharp words over the shortfall, Padilla steered conversation back to routine financial matters.
Overall, Padilla proposed a budget with an increase of $81 million, or 1.7%, to recurring general fund spending. However, it represented a decrease of $143 million, or 44%, to non-recurring general fund spending.
She said that recruiting educators remains a priority for the department. In fiscal year 2025, New Mexico had 681 teacher vacancies and more than 1,100 teachers finished “educator prep programs,” Padilla said.
Beyond classroom education, Padilla’s presentation to lawmakers focused on the ways New Mexico’s public schools meet the physical needs of their communities’ children. Across the state, public schools are projected to serve 58 million meals by the end of this fiscal year in June, an increase from 55 million in fiscal year 2025, Padilla said.
The PED budget request included $2.3 million in a base funding increase, which includes nearly $400,000 for building rent, $1 million in healthcare costs and $244,000 for increased full-time equivalent employee positions. Currently, the department has 361 positions but only has funding for 340, according to Padilla’s presentation.
Her department also requested $500,000 for continued legal costs in the Yazzie/Martinez case.