2025-26 Water Year Precipitation vs. the Average (Early Jan update)

Here is a graphic showing the amount of precipitation that has fallen so far this water year, which started on Oct 1. The water year (Oct 1 – Sep 30) is used by hydrologists and meteorologists as it more accurately reflects the accumulation of precipitation during the winter for use during the growing season.

The current running total of precipitation here on the north side of Taos is shown by the green line below. The red line is the best guess estimated precipitation for the south side of Taos. The black line shows the average amount of precipitation based on 120 years of data. Inches of rain is the vertical axis, while the days and months of the year are on the horizontal axis.

Precipitation started off in the new water year a little below average during Oct, with a little more rainfall on the southside than at my northside location. In Nov, after a dry first half of the month, there was enough precipitation in the last 2 weeks to keep the totals right around average.

December though ended up on the dry side, with totals around a third of inch below average at the start of the new year.

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2024-25 Water Year Precipitation vs. the Average (Final version)

Here is a graphic showing the amount of precipitation that has fallen so far this water year, which started on Oct 1. The water year (Oct 1 – Sep 30) is used by hydrologists and meteorologists as it more accurately reflects the accumulation of precipitation during the winter for use during the growing season.

The current running total of precipitation here on the north side of Taos is shown by the green line below. The red line is the best guess estimated precipitation for the south side of Taos. The black line shows the average amount of precipitation based on 120 years of data. Inches of rain is the vertical axis, while the days and months of the year are on the horizontal axis.

Precipitation started off in the new water year way above average, thanks mainly to a widespread rainstorm in Oct. Some other storms occurred in Nov, Jan and Mar that brought much needed precipitation. However, the dry spells from mid Nov through late Jan, plus another one in Feb and again in Apr took their toll on the water year totals.

Luckily, a widespread rain and snow storm hit the region in early May, producing a pretty uniform 1 1/2 to 2 inches of precipitation across the valley. During the summer, some areas (like across the southern sections) saw fewer and weaker rain storms. Across parts of the northern valley, there were timely and sometime heavy rain storms clear into Sep.

Hence the southside of town (as shown by the estimated red trace from 1 NNE of Ranchos) ended up about 3/4 of an inch below average for the water year. On the northside, precipitation totals were about 1 to 2 inches above average (as shown by the actual green trace from 4 NNW Taos).

4 NNW Taos . . . . . 14.78 inches (actual)

Average total . . . . . 12.66 inches

1 NNE Ranchos . . . 11.80 inches (estimated)

Here are the water year totals since 2011-12 (2012 Year = 2011-12 Water Year)

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2023-24 Water Year Precipitation vs. the Average (Final update)

Here is a graphic showing the amount of precipitation that has fallen so far this water year, which started on Oct 1. The water year (Oct 1 – Sep 30) is used by hydrologists and meteorologists as it more accurately reflects the accumulation of precipitation during the winter for use during the growing season.

The current running total of precipitation here on the north side of Taos is shown by the green line below. The red line is the best guess estimated precipitation for the south side of Taos. The black line shows the average amount of precipitation based on 120 years of data. Inches of rain is the vertical axis, while the days and months of the year are on the horizontal axis.

Total precipitation at my northside location for the water year was 13.93 inches, about 1.27 inches above the long term average of 12.66 inches. On the southside, less precipitation fell (around 12.25″), which ended up being a little below average.

After a dry start from October 1 of 2023 to about the middle of November, the north side of Taos has had a rather steady amount of above average precipitation through the winter months. On the south side, precipitation amounts also increased in the winter, but that part of town missed out on some significant precipitation events in the last part of March and also in the middle of May. However a big downpour occurred on June 20th just over the central and southern parts of the valley, and so amounts all across the valley were above average starting off July.

However, very little rain fell over the central and southern parts of the valley during July, and so overall totals for that part of the region fell below average by the end of the month. Northern areas were still a little above average though.

Above average rain fell during August, especially in the last half of the month. Amounts on the north side are still above the long term water year average, while the south side remains a little bit below average.

In September, a good widespread rain of around an inch occurred in the middle of the month, but it was still not quite enough rain to bring the southern side of the valley up to average.

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