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on October 1, 2026
New Mexico State Police officers halt eastbound traffic Tuesday afternoon at Hurley.
Cars passing through the intersection of Texas and Yankie streets in downtown Silver City are reflected in a rain-streaked hubcap at the park in the intersection Tuesday.
Heavy rains Tuesday and Wednesday prompted road closures and changes in school schedules across Grant County and southwest New Mexico.
According to the National Weather Service’s El Paso office, 48-hour rainfall totals ranged from 2.82 inches recorded near San Lorenzo to just more than an inch at Lake Roberts.
Cobre Consolidated Schools allowed students living in the Mimbres Valley to go home early Tuesday, but held classes as usual Wednesday.
Heavy rains in and around Cliff prompted the Silver Consolidated School District to cancel classes in Cliff on Wednesday after first calling a two-hour delay the night before. Schools in Silver City did not have any schedule changes.
Silver Schools Superintendent William Hawkins made the call despite an early morning tour of area roads, where, he said, he saw creeks had receded enough for buses to cross and it wasn’t raining.
But as soon as he sent out messages to parents that the two-hour delay would be observed, it started raining again in Cliff, he told the Daily Press. Even after about half an hour of rain, he said he thought Cliff Schools might be able to go ahead with its day, but decided to take one more look at Bear Creek.
“By the time I got to Bear Creek, you could see the water flowing over it again,” he said.
Ultimately, Hawkins decided to cancel classes for the school Wednesday.
“There were too many unpredictable things happening right then and there,” he said. “I did not want to run the risk of having buses on the road and the water fill up too quick in some areas, or not being able to get kids back home because the rain that was supposed to stop was now raining and flooding those creeks over.”
The Cliff campus did not have any flooding issues, although there were some leaks, he said.
Hawkins said he was hopeful conditions would allow classes on Thursday, but was still cautious about that as of Wednesday afternoon.
“My hope is that the rain subsides, the water off the mesas in the Buckhorn area flows through and subsides so that we can get back to normalcy,” he said. “But everything is so saturated that, unfortunately, it doesn’t take a lot of water to create a little bit of problems.”
Weather patterns should allow for at least a few days of drying out, according to the National Weather Service.
“Coming up in the models, it would seem like the patterns will go back to what we would expect to the season,” Meteorologist Natalie Farlow said Wednesday. “We’ve got some tropical activity going on in the Pacific, so that’s something we’re keeping our eye on.”
The forecast calls for mostly clear to sunny skies through next Monday, with temperatures in the upper 60s and 70s. There’s a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms Monday night into Tuesday.
This week’s heavy rains came from remnants of Hurricane Polo, which moved across northern Mexico and has affected weather into the Great Plains.
Road closures Tuesday included U.S. 180 in both directions from near Faywood Hot Springs to Deming. The New Mexico State Police blocked eastbound traffic on the highway at Hurley for part of the afternoon. The road was reopened shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday.
NMDOT also warned drivers Tuesday of closures and difficult driving conditions elsewhere, including water and debris on the roads around Cliff, Mimbres and Faywood.
On Wednesday afternoon, N.M. 174 near Cliff remained closed for about 4 miles.
—JUNO OGLE