Taos has the same altitude and is much smaller, less expensive although somewhat isolated. Santa Fe has a higher altitude (7000 feet) and as such, a much better climate and besides, it's incredibly charming. It's a very ugly town and the weather isn't all that great.

No one should move to Albuquerque except under duress. There are very small but beautiful towns on the NM/Colorado border, like Durango and a couple of others, definitely for outdoor types. If you are looking at Colorado, I'd definitely look at Boulder first. I don't know Denver but it is not reputed to be a very pretty city though I do have many friends who love Boulder. Santa Fe is quite expensive, Taos less so but more isolated. Northern New Mexico does not have the terrible blizzards that paralyze Colorado. Northern NM has spectacular autumns, with the Aspen trees are turning golden, the proximity to the Santa Fe National Forest and the Jemez mountains for hiking, and beautiful winters with powdery Rocky Mountain snowfalls that are equally beautiful and not so cold that one cannot navigate.

There is a consistent 50-degree difference between night and day in the high desert. Both have elevations of about 7000 feet and have a marvelous climate - glorious summers when the temps do not rise above mid eighties, with chilly nights in the fifties. Northern New Mexico is spectacular however. Has it been an unseasonably warm winter in Denver with much less than usual snowfall totals?įorget Albuquerque - probably one of the ugliest towns in the country. However, I've been following the weather in both cities since around Oct/Nov '14 and they seem to be neck in neck. Both have basically the same altitude if not slightly higher in Albuquerque. Both seem to be equally hot in the summer. From my C-D research it seems as if Albuquerque has superior weather because of much less snow totals and warmer winters.

These two cities seem to have some similarities, not just in climate and weather. The more I experience other places the more I appreciate Colorado. Colorado is surrounded by two of the coolest states IMO Utah, New Mexico. Vegas is very succinct and accurate as usual knows his South West well. I know their economy isn't healthy, but not sure what the issues are. On a related subject, but not climate- did you happen to see the article on Yahoo that showed estimated population gains/declines of counties/states? The map of NM showed a lot of people are leaving. I'm a big fan of the desert southwest and will take the climate/ landscape/ scenery of the high Chihuahuan desert over the Great Plains any day. Overall, I think Albuquerque has the better climate. Basically, Albuquerque/ Santa Fe has the climate that Denver thinks it has. Santa Fe has more comparable temperatures to Denver year round, but the weather patterns are still quite different. ABQ is a bit warmer on average than DEN pretty much all year round except summer, with less chaotic day to day variability in the weather. They get a dusting of snow every now and then but it is miniscule compared to Denver. Winter in ABQ both starts 1-2 months later and ends 1-2 months earlier than Denver and is much milder. Denver, by contrast, gets some of its most rain, clouds, humidity, thunderstorms, and hailstorms of the year in early summer. Albuquerque is bone dry with very little to no precipitation in early summer, until the monsoon season kicks in from July to September. True, summer average high and low temperatures in Albuquerque are very similar to Denver, but the weather patterns are completely different. Albuquerque has a true desert southwest climate, basically a cooler version of Phoenix. While many metro areas did in fact pick up a foot of snow or more, the official snowfall total for Denver at Denver International. Any apparent similarities are only superficial. See the Colorado snow totals after an epic snowstorm 03:11. Here are the latest snow totals reported to the National Weather Service as of Saturday morning.Years ago I used to think there were a lot of similarities between DEN and ABQ until I started taking some trips to Albuquerque and learning more about the place. MORE: Hourly forecast | Latest forecast | Radars | Traffic | Weather Page | 24/7 Weather Stream We'll see more sunshine on Saturday, with highs in the upper 30s to low 40s. Skies will gradually clear out and road conditions will improve this afternoon. A winter storm that moved into Colorado Friday created icy roads in the Denver metro area and dumped several inches of snow in other parts of the state.Īround two inches of snow fell Friday night into Saturday for much of Denver, with pockets of 3-4 inches in the eastern part of town and near the Palmer Divide, according to NWS snowfall analysis.

Snowfall totals denver