Albuquerque, N.M. — It may not seem necessary considering our recent high temps, but Albuquerque is bracing for colder weather. City officials are preparing.

It comes after the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center reported an El Niño winter. That means more precipitation like rain or snow could be on the way.

City leaders are making sure their crews know how to handle any snow that comes our way.

“We can’t be surprised because weather calls for snow flurries sometime next week. So, I think we’re well prepared,” said Patrick Montoya, director of Municipal Development for the City of Albuquerque.

Montoya says his crews are prepared for the worst. Four salt domes are set up across the city.

Chief Operations Officer Kevin Sourisseau says each dome can carry about 1400 cubic yards of road salt.

“Our crews can mobilize 75 people to fill and drive up to 40 Dump trucks. We’ve got a brand-new dump truck. It’s got a brand-new plow on it. And they are ready to go. And we’ve got 40 other trucks just like this,” said Sourisseau. According to him, the city had 36 trucks last year.

Montoya reminded everyone during Thursday’s press conference that his crews do not go through residential roads.

“We do the major arterials and our collector streets and if conditions are so bad, we tried to get into some of the other smaller streets but residential streets we just, we do not have… the manpower to hit that,” said Montoya.

Montoya says the city has joined NMDOT, state police, and local police to get the word out when it comes to alerts.

“We want to make sure that the roads are salted and ready for people to go to work or go to school, or on their way home from work or even to do shopping,” said Montoya.

City leaders emphasized if you see one of their dump trucks on the road– stay at least 50 feet away for the crew’s safety and yours.