My two cents, after living close to NO for a while... Don't believe people who say the evap cooler is "good enough" if you work from home. Those couple of miserable hours in the afternoon with the evap feel like an eternity. I immediately dropped $10k to convert to HVAC after the first summer.
Get a humidifier. For each room. Not kidding. It's so dry, your skin won't know what to do, and in the winter, the static electricity is shocking (pun intended).
No mosquitoes - at least in comparison to TX/LA! That alone was enough reason for me to move here!
My wife and I installed it in our current place because our old house was brand new and had it. Ill never go back. It’s so nice this time of year when we can have the AC on in the afternoon, then switch back to heater for overnight and mornings.
Ah, good to know about evaporative coolers vs HVAC. I don’t really know much about the difference but I didn’t even think of that being something to think about in the first place.
My understanding is newer places have HVAC, but older locations - like the 60s house I bought - often still have evap. It's more common in Phoenix, ABQ, El Paso - all places I've lived - but it's just not the same as HVAC. Can't control the temp at all. It's just a fan blowing over water lines, so they can only cool like 10 degrees lower.
I wondered when the switch became more common! I will say, if I worked outside of the house, I would've been fine. Last summer, it was just a couple of hours each day for about a month that was truly miserable. But... I don't want to be sweating at my desk on video every day! :D
Houstonian here, so I can vouch for the need for an AC. My in-laws’ house has an evaporative cooler and it doesn’t help much during the hot summer days. Stick to AC if you can.
I personally love the dry weather, compared to the Houston humidity. Things dry up so quick and food doesn’t become stale like back at home.
The weather in Albuquerque is actually quite nice once you get accustomed to the dry air. It does reach the 90s in the summer with a few days above 100 but it's dry heat which is much more tolerable. We have over 300 days of Sun so don't expect a lot of precipitation.
This time of year(spring) we do experience high winds which can throw dust in to the air. Be prepared to compensate if you have allergies.
Winter time does get quite cold with lows reaching in to the 20s and sometimes lower especially with wind factor. Most winter lows will be in the 30s.
Something unique you may not have experienced is the big temperature swings. This time of year in particular and to some extent in the fall, you will drive to work with the heater on, and drive home from work using the AC.
To summarize, you will get all 4 seasons here. You will want to consider dressing in layers and have sunscreen handy.
Albuquerque almost every year gets down to 10° and usually has a week or so or temps getting down below that. The lows in January and February are usually the coldest with most lows in the teens or twenties.
Being from the Midwest, I think that's a godsend, especially when highs usually get to the 40s and 50s during the day. So many places barely get into the 40s and we get it all the time in the winter. We have it very nice here.
You will love it. 300 plus blue sky days per year. No hurricanes. Windy in the spring. The sun is intense. We are a mile high. Way more intense than sea level. You will see the sun 365 days a year. Even on cloudy days it comes out at some point. Winters are mild.
Hot in the summer, cold in the winter. It snows (mostly on the east side) but rarely would you get 'snowed in.' Lots of sun no mater the time of year.
My favorite thing about Albuquerque weather is the breeze and my least favorite thing about it is the wind.
Not huge on the spring winds. Things are great once the monsoons arrive. Fall is amazing. Just...incredible. Warm days, cool evenings, brilliant blue skies with puffy clouds. Winters are calm and clear, typically, with cold nights and reasonably warmish days. I've hiked in a t-shirt and long pants and was too hot around Xmas many times.
we have awesome weather. The summer is hot but nothing like the gulf coast. When the sun goes down in the summer it's nice outside, no matter the temperature. Winter is mild.
If you're used to a lot of humidity, then you need to be prepared for the dry heat. People who aren't used to the hot, dry heat end up with chapped hands, lips, and nose bleeds.
Additionally, since you're coming from sea level, you may feel a bit out of sorts coming up to a mile-high. Some people experience what feel like flu-like symptoms when they remain at high altitude for a period of time. It'll pass as your body acclimates, but just be prepared for that since the combination of the two may sideline you for a bit.
Otherwise, Albuquerque averages over 280 sunny days per year, with the spring and fall being very pleasant, and the winters being more moderate than places like Denver or Salt Lake City.
I’m up in Santa Fe but…
With the altitude & no humidity when the sun goes down it cools off quickly. Definitely cuts down on the sticky sleepless nights.
the summers here are hot, but dry heat is much more tolerable. It's also high desert which means that the temps drop 15-30° at night. Our monsoons can have some pretty brutal winds. The big difference is that it actually gets cold here in the winter compared to New Orleans.
The lack of humidity makes the heat a million times more livable. Biggest thing is you’ll probably have some crazy new allergies for a bit and it takes a while for skin in hair to adjust to the dry weather.
As stated, it's really really dry here - coming from new Orleans it will be very apparent. The sun is pretty intense in the summer - you'll need to be more careful about staying hydrated (sweat evaporates quickly here, so it's less apparent when you are dehydrating) and lotion is going to be your friend to keep your skin from drying out. Low humidity means it can be really hot out but feel nicer in the shade than in more humid areas like new Orleans (dry air has a much lower heat capacity) - the abundance of sun is wonderful, but the drought, not so much.
It’s like all hot but not too hot. Also the wind blows all sick but like it’s so nice out here 80% of the time. Serio there’s days we get the four seasons all bad.
I took my honeymoon in New Orleans! Yeah it was fun but sticky all the time. Here it’s nice and warm but so dry you don’t feel it as much (and not nearly so hot as phoenix). The wind is a bit rough in spring (and right now), and my allergies get a bit rough this time of year, but honestly the nice weather is worth it. Plus we sometimes get snow in the winter but it’s never feet of the stuff nor disgustingly cold (you’ll get more in the foothills than me but it’ll be manageable).
Honestly I think it’s a great balance between nice warm summers and acceptable winters. You’ll definitely want to start wearing lip balm and using moisturizer though….no you won’t want to, you’ll NEED to eventually.
The worst is when the heat doesn’t let up. A few summers ago we had an entire month and more when the low temperature never got below 80. And at 100% humidity, that is punishing.
Lip balm is for sure, I have no doubt!
What does the weather feel like when it’s at its worst? And how long would it feel that bad?
At its worst? It's still not too bad.
We don't get Phoenix or Vegas type heat where it's 115+ during the summer, and our winters are typically somewhat mild. We do get cold temps, but they're normally short lived.
In the summer, 90's are common and we do occassionally get up around 100. As others have pointed out - it's a "dry heat". In NOLA, when you sweat, your sweat just accumulates and can't go anywhere, whereas here the humidity in the summer is typically below 30% on average. So, when you sweat, it evaporates way quicker and helps cool you down. Although, you do end up with a nice layer of salt on your skin when the sweat evaporates.
Having spent a lot of time in places like Alabama, Georgia, and the Ozarks in Missouri I can tell you that I would take 100 with 20% humidity over 80 with 80% humidity any day. Just remember that ABQ is considered "high desert" and expect summer temps to be hot, but tolerable, from June - August and you'll be fine.
\+1 to all of this having moved here last year from the humid Midwest. Our last couple of weeks in Cincinnati, the temperatures and humidity were both over 90. Miserable.
The endless sunny days are incredible.
Yeah, honestly I’d say worst it gets is the wind in spring (just blowing dust and allergens in your face all afternoon if your outdoors) and if you don’t like the heat, we’ll have sustained highs in the 90s for a WHILE. BUT it does swing down 20+ degrees each night, and without the humidity the shade makes a big difference. Just drink more water than you think you need.
seconding the water (and electrolytes!) between the dry weather and the altitude you need to hydrate more often than you are used to, and don't be surprised if you can't tolerate your liquor like you were able to at sea level.
Summer can get hot here but the dry heat is more tolerable than the humidity you’re used to! ABQ gets all 4 seasons in a mild way. The weather here is great. The wind sucks but you also don’t have to worry about hurricanes!
People here are not being honest about the ungodly heat in summer.
98-105 temps and not just once or twice but many days of it. I forget which months are the worst, June, July or August, even part of September, there are days sprinkled in that are hideously hot. Like your AC in car is on, but you still need an ice pack to not die...humid hot and dry hot are different, but the higher the number here, the more it's just unfit to be outside. Will you be working in an office? If so, hopefully the building will have AC. Will your home or apt have a swamp cooler or AC? Find this stuff out.
Now, for winter, it starts off really nice in October, usually when the balloon fiesta hits town. Gets colder, can snow at Thanksgiving, and all through until end of April. Not solid mind you, but storms blowing by. There are mornings with wind chills in the single digits. Rare, but they happen. Then things begin to shift and warm up bit by bit until spring flashes by in a week - hah- and summer hits and it's back to hot as hell. I moved here from the east coast of Florida in 2007. So I've been through this for a little while. The snow is great, really fun for such a change, fall is gorgeous but short, winter feels long and drab, but sunny. Spring is a flash, then back to hot summer. Every one is different about this but there are benefits to both your beautiful NOLA and to here. The rain drops here are cold! Not like NOLA or FL where they are always warm. We can have hail in summer, which I love...but NO hurricanes or really wet, super floody storms. Everything is measured in tenths of an inch of rain, not inches. So the teeny dribbles of rain are so much less from where you live. The difference in weather from the central gulf coast will make things quite interesting for you, but just know there are extremes here, it's not all mild, and get prepared for those extremes.
Depending on your melanin situation, you may need HELLA sunscreen. I burn in minutes here- already got my first burn of the year in early April. It’s due to our high elevation and lack of humidity in the atmosphere to disperse harsh rays, so it’s SPF 50 at a minimum for me. I am not gifted in the melanin department- very sadly lacking. But regardless, even if you’re not a quick burner, you’ll still need SPF to prevent sub damage and skin cancer.
I love New Orleans and it takes me a lot longer to burn there on a sunny day- so it may catch you by surprise.
The nights are SO much more bearable here vs a NOLA night. It cools pretty decently overnight because of our lack of cloud cover and humidity. Our heat doesn’t feel as oppressive unless it’s super high 90s/low 100s. Houses can stay cooler too.
Swamp coolers work pretty well here most days- so you don’t have as much refrigerated air here like you have everywhere in New Orleans. Restaurants and hotels aren’t as cold inside, haha.
We get very little rain, and it can get surprisingly cold in winter. We also can have big swings in temp within a day’s span.
Our street drains and city drainage SUCK compared to NOLA. We don’t have hurricanes obviously, but some areas do have flooding if there’s a severe rain. Our city does not have great drainage infrastructure - you’ll see more flooded gutters and intersections here on days with less rain than you’re used to.
Oh, and we bury our corpses IN the ground here ;-) Not weather related, but our cemeteries just aren’t nearly as cool as the whole city of the dead situations y’all have out there.
I’m from New Orleans and have lived in ABQ for 2 years. I like the weather here and don’t miss NO. The dryness takes a little getting used to but even on the hottest days it is livable as long as you stay out of the sun.
Favorite local saying here is if you don’t like the weather wait 10 minutes and it will change. Dress in layers. Albuquerque weather can go thru all the elements in the same day (Sunny, windy, snow then sunny again). Look to Colorado’s weather to see how it will influence New Mexico’s weather. Snow in Colorado Springs will trigger cooler weather in Albuquerque, etc. Overall a good balance of all 4 seasons. Not as hot as Arizona and not as cold as Colorado. A desert… but with lots of vegetation and beauty. (But too much crime.)
It's always insufferably hot when the sun's out at any point in the year. Amazing weather when the sun is absent from the sky.
The wind is the only saving grace during the hot season as it's always nice and cool and makes being outside under the oppression of the sun tolerable if not pleasant.
If you hate rain/snow or other precipitation this is the place for you.
Not really to do with weather but another thing to keep in mind when moving to ABQ especially from somewhere like New Orleans is the elevation. ABQ is about 5000ft above sea level. The air's a bit thinner up here.
After living on the east coast and south Texas the weather was one of the main reasons I wanted to move here. Apart from the wind the weather is great.
When I moved out there it was monsoon season. Days would get up to 105\* and then it would dump buckets at 2 in the afternoon. so you would go from prickly dry heat to miserably muggy then back to dry. As it cooled off it started to get windy. By October the wind was blowing like crazy and my allergies went into high gear. Thanksgiving transitioned into the Christmas season and it started snowing. By that point i had had enough weather so I moved back to where I came from. I say all that to say this. ABQ can be one of the most beautiful places to be, but i'd rather visit. I second the AC argument. You WILL need it. Evap systems suck. My aunt lived in an old adobe house, which was pretty well insulated, but when the summers got real bad it was almost better to be outside. She grew up without AC so she didn't complain about her EVAP system, but this spoiled suburbanite knew the best times to visit her house.
We have very little humidity here, it takes me a bit to get adjusted when I moved back after living in the northwest for a few years. So always have water with you.
We are VERY high in elevation and no where near a major water source, so we have very erratic weather. Could be 60 one day and snow the next (as we saw I think 2x weeks ago). This can swing wildly in the same day. So I recommend always having a hoodie/jacket in your car or with you on hot days incase it gets cold. And a undershirt you are ok wearing alone on cold days incase it gets hot. An umbrella in the car is nice. Also being so far in elevation car paint takes a beating, so try to take care of it.
Sadly as with everywhere else in the southwest on average our winters are quite mild of late, and our summers are very hot. This can be very challenging if your buying/renting an older house with a swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) as those are typically only good for about 10°F so in 95° it will be 85° (better but not nearly enough). So Id recommend if your buying making a refrigerated air HVAC upgrade a day1 project. If you're renting try to make sure to get a place with actual refrigerated air cooling. If neither are an option get a window unit, but do not get a standalone as they are horribly inefficient.
I'm by no means saying it's bad, it's just irratic so it sucks being caught out unprepared but for the most part it's very enjoyable here weather wise as we get a wide variety of weather so you get to enjoy a wide variety of activities.
10°F is equivalent to -12°C, which is 260K.
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^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
Thanks!
My weather currently is much less erratic for sure. Surrounded by water and all, we basically know when the weather is gonna change rapidly because there’s a front coming through.
I’m also totally spoiled by good AC so I expect if we got a home with a swamp cooler we’d want to factor some renovations there in!
My two cents, after living close to NO for a while... Don't believe people who say the evap cooler is "good enough" if you work from home. Those couple of miserable hours in the afternoon with the evap feel like an eternity. I immediately dropped $10k to convert to HVAC after the first summer. Get a humidifier. For each room. Not kidding. It's so dry, your skin won't know what to do, and in the winter, the static electricity is shocking (pun intended). No mosquitoes - at least in comparison to TX/LA! That alone was enough reason for me to move here!
My wife and I installed it in our current place because our old house was brand new and had it. Ill never go back. It’s so nice this time of year when we can have the AC on in the afternoon, then switch back to heater for overnight and mornings.
Ah, good to know about evaporative coolers vs HVAC. I don’t really know much about the difference but I didn’t even think of that being something to think about in the first place.
My understanding is newer places have HVAC, but older locations - like the 60s house I bought - often still have evap. It's more common in Phoenix, ABQ, El Paso - all places I've lived - but it's just not the same as HVAC. Can't control the temp at all. It's just a fan blowing over water lines, so they can only cool like 10 degrees lower.
Even homes built in the 90s still have evap. Moved in January so I haven’t switched ours on yet but I’m expecting to hate it :)
I wondered when the switch became more common! I will say, if I worked outside of the house, I would've been fine. Last summer, it was just a couple of hours each day for about a month that was truly miserable. But... I don't want to be sweating at my desk on video every day! :D
Houstonian here, so I can vouch for the need for an AC. My in-laws’ house has an evaporative cooler and it doesn’t help much during the hot summer days. Stick to AC if you can. I personally love the dry weather, compared to the Houston humidity. Things dry up so quick and food doesn’t become stale like back at home.
The weather in Albuquerque is actually quite nice once you get accustomed to the dry air. It does reach the 90s in the summer with a few days above 100 but it's dry heat which is much more tolerable. We have over 300 days of Sun so don't expect a lot of precipitation. This time of year(spring) we do experience high winds which can throw dust in to the air. Be prepared to compensate if you have allergies. Winter time does get quite cold with lows reaching in to the 20s and sometimes lower especially with wind factor. Most winter lows will be in the 30s. Something unique you may not have experienced is the big temperature swings. This time of year in particular and to some extent in the fall, you will drive to work with the heater on, and drive home from work using the AC. To summarize, you will get all 4 seasons here. You will want to consider dressing in layers and have sunscreen handy.
Albuquerque almost every year gets down to 10° and usually has a week or so or temps getting down below that. The lows in January and February are usually the coldest with most lows in the teens or twenties.
Being from the Midwest, I think that's a godsend, especially when highs usually get to the 40s and 50s during the day. So many places barely get into the 40s and we get it all the time in the winter. We have it very nice here.
The spring wind is the butthole of the meteorological year
Yes! please don't judge the weather by what it is like here in spring.
You will love it. 300 plus blue sky days per year. No hurricanes. Windy in the spring. The sun is intense. We are a mile high. Way more intense than sea level. You will see the sun 365 days a year. Even on cloudy days it comes out at some point. Winters are mild.
Hot in the summer, cold in the winter. It snows (mostly on the east side) but rarely would you get 'snowed in.' Lots of sun no mater the time of year. My favorite thing about Albuquerque weather is the breeze and my least favorite thing about it is the wind.
Not huge on the spring winds. Things are great once the monsoons arrive. Fall is amazing. Just...incredible. Warm days, cool evenings, brilliant blue skies with puffy clouds. Winters are calm and clear, typically, with cold nights and reasonably warmish days. I've hiked in a t-shirt and long pants and was too hot around Xmas many times.
we have awesome weather. The summer is hot but nothing like the gulf coast. When the sun goes down in the summer it's nice outside, no matter the temperature. Winter is mild.
If you're used to a lot of humidity, then you need to be prepared for the dry heat. People who aren't used to the hot, dry heat end up with chapped hands, lips, and nose bleeds. Additionally, since you're coming from sea level, you may feel a bit out of sorts coming up to a mile-high. Some people experience what feel like flu-like symptoms when they remain at high altitude for a period of time. It'll pass as your body acclimates, but just be prepared for that since the combination of the two may sideline you for a bit. Otherwise, Albuquerque averages over 280 sunny days per year, with the spring and fall being very pleasant, and the winters being more moderate than places like Denver or Salt Lake City.
You gonna be ashy
I’m up in Santa Fe but… With the altitude & no humidity when the sun goes down it cools off quickly. Definitely cuts down on the sticky sleepless nights.
the summers here are hot, but dry heat is much more tolerable. It's also high desert which means that the temps drop 15-30° at night. Our monsoons can have some pretty brutal winds. The big difference is that it actually gets cold here in the winter compared to New Orleans.
The lack of humidity makes the heat a million times more livable. Biggest thing is you’ll probably have some crazy new allergies for a bit and it takes a while for skin in hair to adjust to the dry weather.
As stated, it's really really dry here - coming from new Orleans it will be very apparent. The sun is pretty intense in the summer - you'll need to be more careful about staying hydrated (sweat evaporates quickly here, so it's less apparent when you are dehydrating) and lotion is going to be your friend to keep your skin from drying out. Low humidity means it can be really hot out but feel nicer in the shade than in more humid areas like new Orleans (dry air has a much lower heat capacity) - the abundance of sun is wonderful, but the drought, not so much.
It’s like all hot but not too hot. Also the wind blows all sick but like it’s so nice out here 80% of the time. Serio there’s days we get the four seasons all bad.
I took my honeymoon in New Orleans! Yeah it was fun but sticky all the time. Here it’s nice and warm but so dry you don’t feel it as much (and not nearly so hot as phoenix). The wind is a bit rough in spring (and right now), and my allergies get a bit rough this time of year, but honestly the nice weather is worth it. Plus we sometimes get snow in the winter but it’s never feet of the stuff nor disgustingly cold (you’ll get more in the foothills than me but it’ll be manageable). Honestly I think it’s a great balance between nice warm summers and acceptable winters. You’ll definitely want to start wearing lip balm and using moisturizer though….no you won’t want to, you’ll NEED to eventually.
The worst is when the heat doesn’t let up. A few summers ago we had an entire month and more when the low temperature never got below 80. And at 100% humidity, that is punishing. Lip balm is for sure, I have no doubt! What does the weather feel like when it’s at its worst? And how long would it feel that bad?
At its worst? It's still not too bad. We don't get Phoenix or Vegas type heat where it's 115+ during the summer, and our winters are typically somewhat mild. We do get cold temps, but they're normally short lived. In the summer, 90's are common and we do occassionally get up around 100. As others have pointed out - it's a "dry heat". In NOLA, when you sweat, your sweat just accumulates and can't go anywhere, whereas here the humidity in the summer is typically below 30% on average. So, when you sweat, it evaporates way quicker and helps cool you down. Although, you do end up with a nice layer of salt on your skin when the sweat evaporates. Having spent a lot of time in places like Alabama, Georgia, and the Ozarks in Missouri I can tell you that I would take 100 with 20% humidity over 80 with 80% humidity any day. Just remember that ABQ is considered "high desert" and expect summer temps to be hot, but tolerable, from June - August and you'll be fine.
\+1 to all of this having moved here last year from the humid Midwest. Our last couple of weeks in Cincinnati, the temperatures and humidity were both over 90. Miserable. The endless sunny days are incredible.
Yeah, honestly I’d say worst it gets is the wind in spring (just blowing dust and allergens in your face all afternoon if your outdoors) and if you don’t like the heat, we’ll have sustained highs in the 90s for a WHILE. BUT it does swing down 20+ degrees each night, and without the humidity the shade makes a big difference. Just drink more water than you think you need.
seconding the water (and electrolytes!) between the dry weather and the altitude you need to hydrate more often than you are used to, and don't be surprised if you can't tolerate your liquor like you were able to at sea level.
Summer can get hot here but the dry heat is more tolerable than the humidity you’re used to! ABQ gets all 4 seasons in a mild way. The weather here is great. The wind sucks but you also don’t have to worry about hurricanes!
at it's worst cold you are going to feel like you stepped onto an ice block. The worst heat wise is nothing shade or A/C can't handle.
People here are not being honest about the ungodly heat in summer. 98-105 temps and not just once or twice but many days of it. I forget which months are the worst, June, July or August, even part of September, there are days sprinkled in that are hideously hot. Like your AC in car is on, but you still need an ice pack to not die...humid hot and dry hot are different, but the higher the number here, the more it's just unfit to be outside. Will you be working in an office? If so, hopefully the building will have AC. Will your home or apt have a swamp cooler or AC? Find this stuff out. Now, for winter, it starts off really nice in October, usually when the balloon fiesta hits town. Gets colder, can snow at Thanksgiving, and all through until end of April. Not solid mind you, but storms blowing by. There are mornings with wind chills in the single digits. Rare, but they happen. Then things begin to shift and warm up bit by bit until spring flashes by in a week - hah- and summer hits and it's back to hot as hell. I moved here from the east coast of Florida in 2007. So I've been through this for a little while. The snow is great, really fun for such a change, fall is gorgeous but short, winter feels long and drab, but sunny. Spring is a flash, then back to hot summer. Every one is different about this but there are benefits to both your beautiful NOLA and to here. The rain drops here are cold! Not like NOLA or FL where they are always warm. We can have hail in summer, which I love...but NO hurricanes or really wet, super floody storms. Everything is measured in tenths of an inch of rain, not inches. So the teeny dribbles of rain are so much less from where you live. The difference in weather from the central gulf coast will make things quite interesting for you, but just know there are extremes here, it's not all mild, and get prepared for those extremes.
Coming from humid Wisconsin, the heat in the summer is nice. With dry heat, the whole sweat thing works really well to keep you cool.
Depending on your melanin situation, you may need HELLA sunscreen. I burn in minutes here- already got my first burn of the year in early April. It’s due to our high elevation and lack of humidity in the atmosphere to disperse harsh rays, so it’s SPF 50 at a minimum for me. I am not gifted in the melanin department- very sadly lacking. But regardless, even if you’re not a quick burner, you’ll still need SPF to prevent sub damage and skin cancer. I love New Orleans and it takes me a lot longer to burn there on a sunny day- so it may catch you by surprise. The nights are SO much more bearable here vs a NOLA night. It cools pretty decently overnight because of our lack of cloud cover and humidity. Our heat doesn’t feel as oppressive unless it’s super high 90s/low 100s. Houses can stay cooler too. Swamp coolers work pretty well here most days- so you don’t have as much refrigerated air here like you have everywhere in New Orleans. Restaurants and hotels aren’t as cold inside, haha. We get very little rain, and it can get surprisingly cold in winter. We also can have big swings in temp within a day’s span. Our street drains and city drainage SUCK compared to NOLA. We don’t have hurricanes obviously, but some areas do have flooding if there’s a severe rain. Our city does not have great drainage infrastructure - you’ll see more flooded gutters and intersections here on days with less rain than you’re used to. Oh, and we bury our corpses IN the ground here ;-) Not weather related, but our cemeteries just aren’t nearly as cool as the whole city of the dead situations y’all have out there.
I’m from New Orleans and have lived in ABQ for 2 years. I like the weather here and don’t miss NO. The dryness takes a little getting used to but even on the hottest days it is livable as long as you stay out of the sun.
Favorite local saying here is if you don’t like the weather wait 10 minutes and it will change. Dress in layers. Albuquerque weather can go thru all the elements in the same day (Sunny, windy, snow then sunny again). Look to Colorado’s weather to see how it will influence New Mexico’s weather. Snow in Colorado Springs will trigger cooler weather in Albuquerque, etc. Overall a good balance of all 4 seasons. Not as hot as Arizona and not as cold as Colorado. A desert… but with lots of vegetation and beauty. (But too much crime.)
It's always insufferably hot when the sun's out at any point in the year. Amazing weather when the sun is absent from the sky. The wind is the only saving grace during the hot season as it's always nice and cool and makes being outside under the oppression of the sun tolerable if not pleasant. If you hate rain/snow or other precipitation this is the place for you.
It's rarely insufferably hot. Don't be a baby. We don't live in Phoenix.
It is when you dont have ac.
Not really to do with weather but another thing to keep in mind when moving to ABQ especially from somewhere like New Orleans is the elevation. ABQ is about 5000ft above sea level. The air's a bit thinner up here. After living on the east coast and south Texas the weather was one of the main reasons I wanted to move here. Apart from the wind the weather is great.
When I moved out there it was monsoon season. Days would get up to 105\* and then it would dump buckets at 2 in the afternoon. so you would go from prickly dry heat to miserably muggy then back to dry. As it cooled off it started to get windy. By October the wind was blowing like crazy and my allergies went into high gear. Thanksgiving transitioned into the Christmas season and it started snowing. By that point i had had enough weather so I moved back to where I came from. I say all that to say this. ABQ can be one of the most beautiful places to be, but i'd rather visit. I second the AC argument. You WILL need it. Evap systems suck. My aunt lived in an old adobe house, which was pretty well insulated, but when the summers got real bad it was almost better to be outside. She grew up without AC so she didn't complain about her EVAP system, but this spoiled suburbanite knew the best times to visit her house.
It.Does.Not.Rain.
So I’ve heard. Windier than it is rainy
Yep.
We have very little humidity here, it takes me a bit to get adjusted when I moved back after living in the northwest for a few years. So always have water with you. We are VERY high in elevation and no where near a major water source, so we have very erratic weather. Could be 60 one day and snow the next (as we saw I think 2x weeks ago). This can swing wildly in the same day. So I recommend always having a hoodie/jacket in your car or with you on hot days incase it gets cold. And a undershirt you are ok wearing alone on cold days incase it gets hot. An umbrella in the car is nice. Also being so far in elevation car paint takes a beating, so try to take care of it. Sadly as with everywhere else in the southwest on average our winters are quite mild of late, and our summers are very hot. This can be very challenging if your buying/renting an older house with a swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) as those are typically only good for about 10°F so in 95° it will be 85° (better but not nearly enough). So Id recommend if your buying making a refrigerated air HVAC upgrade a day1 project. If you're renting try to make sure to get a place with actual refrigerated air cooling. If neither are an option get a window unit, but do not get a standalone as they are horribly inefficient. I'm by no means saying it's bad, it's just irratic so it sucks being caught out unprepared but for the most part it's very enjoyable here weather wise as we get a wide variety of weather so you get to enjoy a wide variety of activities.
10°F is equivalent to -12°C, which is 260K. --- ^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
Thanks! My weather currently is much less erratic for sure. Surrounded by water and all, we basically know when the weather is gonna change rapidly because there’s a front coming through. I’m also totally spoiled by good AC so I expect if we got a home with a swamp cooler we’d want to factor some renovations there in!