It seemed there was no end in sight after three years without any meaningful snow or summer rain. In 2013, New Mexico's drought became what climate experts and water managers were calling unprecedented.
A summer heat wave made things worse as the state's reservoirs were reduced to mucky messes, and stretches of the Rio Grande and Pecos rivers went dry.
But summing up New Mexico's weather this year isn't that simple.
There was record rainfall, flash flooding, historic wind gusts and a severe hail storm that put snow plows to work during the first week of July.
Deirdre Kann with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque says New Mexico is finishing the year with near normal temperatures and precipitation, but the fluctuations during the year were anything but near normal.
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