States / New Mexico

28 counties · median score 13

Crawl space moisture in New Mexico

Most of New Mexico drains well: only 0 of 28 counties score high or elevated, and the median is 13. Lincoln County is the exception at 17; crawl-space moisture problems here usually come from grading, gutters and plumbing rather than the soil itself.

1234
  1. 1Wettest county Lincoln County
  2. 2High or elevated 0 of 28
  3. 3Median score 13
  4. 4Driest county Roosevelt County
Lincoln17Mora17Otero17Cibola16Grant16San Miguel16Colfax15Hidalgo15Rio Arriba15Catron14Guadalupe14McKinley14Sierra14Luna13Chaves12
Soil moisture score (0–100) for the 15 highest of 28 counties in New Mexico, bars to scale. Score from USDA NRCS drainage class, hydrologic group, water-table depth and flooding; see methodology.
0High0Elevated0Moderate28Low
New Mexico: counties by soil moisture tier, columns to scale.

New Mexico's soil, taken as a whole

Across the 58,364,986 acres mapped in these 28 counties, 0% of soil with a drainage class is somewhat poorly, poorly or very poorly drained, and 2% of acres report a seasonal water table within about two metres. That is a dry figure; wet soils here are confined to river bottoms and wetlands. 28 of the 28 counties have mapped soils subject to occasional or frequent flooding.

Drainage classShare of mapped acres
Excessively drained2.5%
Somewhat excessively drained2.7%
Well drained93.8%
Moderately well drained0.6%
Somewhat poorly drained0.2%
Poorly drained0.1%
Very poorly drained0.1%

Radon. By EPA zone, 5 New Mexico counties here are zone 1 (highest potential), 23 zone 2 and 0 zone 3. EPA says to test regardless of zone; a sealed crawl space is the cheapest moment to add radon venting if a test calls for it.

Every New Mexico county

Sorted wettest first. High and elevated counties link to their own page with the full soil breakdown.

Lincoln County 17Mora County 17Otero County 17Cibola County 16Grant County 16San Miguel County 16Colfax County 15Hidalgo County 15Rio Arriba County 15Catron County 14Guadalupe County 14McKinley County 14Sierra County 14Luna County 13Chaves County 12Lea County 12San Juan County 12De Baca County 11Eddy County 11Union County 11Dona Ana County 10Harding County 10Sandoval County 10Socorro County 10Santa Fe County 9Torrance County 9Valencia County 4Roosevelt County 3

What drives the New Mexico numbers

The wettest county, Lincoln County, is 100% well drained by dominant condition, with a seasonal water table averaging 1 ft below grade across the 1% of acres that report one, and sits in EPA radon zone 2. The driest, Roosevelt County, is 95% well drained. No New Mexico county reaches the high tier.

The score is a guide to the soil, not to a house: a well-graded lot with working gutters in a high county can have a dry crawl space, and a bad downspout can flood one in a low county. The R408 calculator sizes venting or encapsulation for any footprint.

Sources: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (muaggatt: drclassdcd, hydgrpdcd, flodfreqdcd, pondfreqprs, wtdepannmin), acreage-weighted; EPA Map of Radon Zones, county table (June 2024 JSON). Checked 2026-10-23.