Not much chance of rain over the next week, which means we’ll end the month with 0.04 inch in Albuquerque for January. With 0.10 in December, that puts us (by my quick back of the envelope calculation) at the fifth-driest Dec.-Jan. in history. 1966-67 was the worst, with 0.02 inch.

The Palmer Drought Index says we’ve got near normal conditions. Compare that to the snowpack map. This is an example of why a lot of folks don’t put much stock in Palmer around these parts. But then, I guess it depends on what you mean by “drought.”