You think your state is dry? Try New Mexico

Here’s the details.

Santa Fe has received only 1.2 inches of precipitation during the seven-month period since November, the lowest in 133 years of record keeping. The 0.41 inches in Albuquerque is the lowest in 114 years of data.

And in Las Vegas, a community along the eastern edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the 60-month data show precipitation 18.71 inches below normal, according to Charlie Liles, meteorologist in charge of the Weather Service in Albuquerque.

“That’s essentially a year’s precipitation over a five-year period,” Liles said.

As a result, Las Vegas has imposed some of New Mexico’s most restrictive water rules. Outdoor watering has been banned since last fall, leaving lawns withering in once-lush neighborhoods.

Good thing that our president knows global warming and climate change aren’t human-caused, right? (Yes, it’s true that some of this is cyclical. And, it’s also true that what pioneers considered “normal” precipitation years 90-100 years ago were actually “wet” to “very wet” years. In a sense, that’s good; eventually, if it gets painful enough, people will start moving back out of desert states. New Mexico isn’t so bad, but Phoenix and Las Vegas, Nev., could stand to lose half their populations.)

And the worst may be yet to come.

Liles said forecasting models suggest precipitation should be close to average in July and August, meaning the late-summer downpours may be coming.

But he offered a word of caution: The most recent years for poor snowpack in New Mexico were 2000 and 2002 — close together over the 56-year study span. Liles wonders whether those years might indicate a trend toward deepening drought.