NWS: Extreme heat, fire danger for New Mexicans this week; monsoon relief likely on the way

BY: DANIELLE PROKOP
Courtesy of Source NM

The sun peeks through clouds. New Mexico weather will be hot and dry through the week, but some monsoon relief may come as soon as early next week. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM).

High winds will crank up the heat across New Mexico on Tuesday, prompting major heat risk stretching from the Middle Rio Grande Valley in Albuquerque, through the Lower Rio Grande in Las Cruces. Risk from extreme temperatures will include parts of Socorro and the state’s southeastern region, as Roswell is expected to reach 110 degrees. The winds will make that heat index, or “feels like temperature,” even hotter, said Michael Anand, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque.

“We have high confidence that we’ll see temperatures around 110 degrees in Roswell…hence why we upgraded that heat watch to a warning,” Anand said.

Last week, the heat levels prompted warnings from NM health officials and raised concerns for nonprofits and providers serving people experiencing homelessness.

The reality is that heat doesn’t have to reach triple-digits to pose dangers to people’s health, said Chelsea Eastman Langer, who leads NMDOH’s Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau, in an interview last week with Source NM.

She pointed to New Mexico Department of Health data showing that emergency room visits jump when the temperatures outside rise above 90 degrees, but that may not match up with expectations.

“If it’s 90 degrees, people say ‘it’s not that hot, it gets worse,’” she said. “It is a challenge. And I would say it’s when we’re still kind of figuring out how to message and get the word out.”

Langer said that health officials are working with employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  on a proposal to lower the thresholds for issuing weather-related advisories below triple-digits.

“What we see is that we start to get people coming in with heat-related illness at temperatures much lower than when they would issue [a warning],” she said. “We start to see people coming in to [emergency rooms] at 80 degrees and then there’s a pretty sharp increase at 90 degrees.”

Dr. Emily Bartlett, an emergency physician in Gallup, said numerous groups of people face risk from heat: children; the elderly; people without home cooling equipment or shelter; outdoor employees; and anyone with health risks.

“It’s not just the maximum heat, it’s the duration,” Bartlett told Source NM. “If it doesn’t cool off enough at night between days of high heat, it raises the risk of illness.”

Bartlett said in hot weather, heat stroke, a potentially deadly condition which is usually exhibited by a fever of 104 degrees and neurological symptoms, represent the highest concern.

“If someone is expressing altered mental status, acting confused, lethargic, not answering questions correctly — that should be presumed to be an emergency,” she said. “Just like with stroke or heart attack patients, we want to start early treatment, as well as getting that patient to a hospital.”

Less serious conditions can include heat exhaustion and heat rash, which can be mitigated through cooling and hydration, Bartlett said.

The winds also whip up fire danger concerns across the entire Western and Central portions of the state, as officials battle two southern New Mexico fires north of Silver City.

Chances for the seasonal monsoon rains are increasing and may arrive as soon as the weekend, Anand said, offering chances of thunderstorms and rain for most of the state.

​“It’ll be hot and dry until the monsoon plume kicks in on Sunday and Monday of next week,” he said.