We only received about 1.5 inches of snow early Saturday morning which is what we were forecasting, but this storm really didn’t live up to its hype elsewhere in the state. Between 7 and 11 inches fell along central portions of the state, but most locales received significantly lower amounts. I’ve been wanting to try to embed a video in a blog for a while now, so here’s a short view of the snow early Saturday morning from our backyard.

Originally dubbed as the Valentine’s Day storm for New Mexico, this beast of an upper level low has wreaked havoc on our forecasts for the state. The storm originated from north central Pacific waters, and earlier prognoses brought the storm over the state as an “open wave” upper level trough on Feb 14. This storm has given all computer models fits, and has now taken a much slower and more southerly track, and has strengthened to a fully closed off Low. As of Friday afternoon, we’re expecting only about 1 to 2 inches of snowfall in the Albuquerque area, beginning after 12:00AM Saturday and tapering off by noon. Because the track of the low is now riding along the Mexican border, it will be interesting to see the effects of our easterly wind on precipitation formation. A brisk wind gets enhanced over Albuquerque due to channeling of the winds through the Tijeras canyon east of the city. We have already seen intermittent wind gusts up to 40mph last night and this afternoon (and Margie reported sustained winds of 50mph from the ultrasonic sensor at her work). Often the leading edge of these winds will create a surface convergence area and enhance precipitation near the Rio Grande valley. However, if an easterly wind spills over the Sandia Mountains to our east, precipitation can be suppressed as the winds sink down the western slopes of the Sandias. Given the deep profile of the easterly winds with this current system (up to 300mb!), it will be interesting to see how this phenomenon interacts with the dynamics of the upper low itself. This storm will also dump a mess of wintry precip over west Texas on Saturday.

Mike Sherman made his selection for defensive coordinator…again!  He selected Joe Kines to replace Herring, and overall I think I am quite pleased.  Kines seems to have a great resume of past coaching experiences, and from what I hear he is very intense, proactive, and enthusiastic…exactly what the Aggie defense needs in order to regain the “Wrecking Crew” status!  I thought it was interesting to hear that Mike Shanahan, head coach of the Denver Broncos, personally told Mike Sherman that he “could not have hired a better coach or person for the job.  We shall see.  Only six and a half months until the season starts.  I can’t wait…especially since the Ags are playing at UNM on September 6.

As a die-hard Aggie football fan, I have been very eager and probably a little bit anxious as to what the future holds under new head coach Mike Sherman.  On the whole, I was thrilled to hear about Sherman’s hire and then his first selection of assistants, new defensive coordinator Reggie Herring from Arkansas.  I thought there may be a ray of hope to restore the old “Wrecking Crew” defense.  Now, I’m left wondering how someone could commit to a school to be an assistant coach during an offseason period, and then one month later bolt for a bigger, better deal.  The Dallas Morning News (click here for article) and the San Antonio Express News (click here for article) are both reporting it as a done deal: Herring is the new linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys.  As a Cowboys fan, I now have to try and remain on the bandwagon despite having two classless characters on the team: T.O. and now Herring (oh, and of course Jessica Simpson…it’s all her fault Romo can’t win a playoff game!).