The previous day, up to 3 feet of snow had fallen in the Colorado mountains in the deformation zone of the same storm system that generated severe weather over Kansas and Nebraska. Even relatively lower-elevation areas such as Denver and Pagosa Springs received several inches of snow. Today, that energy was shifting south into northern New Mexico, bringing snow first to the mountains and eventually to parts of the plains and Rio Grande Valley as well.
By the next day, snow showers were occurring on and off though the day in Santa Fe. They were light and there were only minor accumulations, but May 13 is still pretty late for snow in Santa Fe. At times it was graupel (snow pellets) and at other times ordinary snow, but it continued on and off throughout the day.
Graupel falling in Santa FE, with a light dusting of it on the ground
Later, some big snowflakes came down.
Although the snow did not accumulate significantly in town, it did in the mountains. Around Ski Santa Fe, about 3 inches accumulated, and farther north around Taos and Red River, up to 10 inches accumulated. Quite a bit of snow for that far south that late in the season. Since all of New Mexico and the southern part of Colorado are very short on moisture, we will take all of it that we can get!
An interesting sidelight - I later learned that on May 12, just across the state line in Colorado south of Pagosa Springs, lightning associated with a thundersnow event actually sparked a small wildfire. The lightning struck a pine tree while snow was falling, and despite the snow, the needles were dry enough to ignite. However, with snow falling the fire could not spread very fast, and was contained at one tenth of an acre. The fire was aptly named the "Snow Fire." You can read about it here.