The remnants of Tropical Storm Nora will generate rainfall this week that will soak Santa Fe and much of New Mexico.
Nora’s persistent dampness will nourish thunderstorms for the first half of the week and will be an indirect factor in the rain forecast for Friday when this year’s zozobra burn is ignited.
Rain alone will not wipe out the festival on Friday, however. Lightning and strong winds, which could burst sparks from the burning, massive puppet, could pose dangers that would necessitate a postponement of the popular event.
“Safety always comes first,” said event organizer Ray Sandoval. “We have contingencies where we might try on Saturday, we might try to go the following Friday, September 10th. We’re not at that point yet.”
Although meteorologists’ predictions vary somewhat, it looks like Friday will be wet – it’s just unknown if lightning and high winds will accompany the rain, Sandoval said.
Concerns about the faster spreading delta variant of the coronavirus have already contained the event.
Ticket sales are capped at 10,000 and attendees must provide evidence that they have been vaccinated or tested negative for the virus within 72 hours of the event.
Nora, which began as a hurricane off Mexico’s west coast two days ago, has now weakened to a tropical storm and is evaporating towards the southwest.
Residents of the Santa Fe area can expect showers between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, said Clay Anderson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.
The leftover moisture from these storms will result in rainfall on Friday and Saturday, Anderson said. “At this point there will be no direct input from Nora’s remains.”
Sandoval said if it’s Seattle-style drizzle the event will continue, with attendees being encouraged to be equipped with umbrellas and rain gear.
Continuous rain is stable and doesn’t come with lightning and stiff gusts, he added.
There have been rainy days in the past that didn’t prevent Zozobra from igniting, most recently in 2006 and 2015, Sandoval said.
Sandoval said organizers will decide until Thursday whether the burning will be postponed so they can announce it to ticket holders.
“We’re not going to let people show up and then turn them away,” said Sandoval.
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