aslkahuna Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for SE Arizona including Tucson for possible snowfall. Snowfall in the Tucson area will range from a dusting in downtown to 1-3 inches at the 3000 ft level. Travel along I-10 east of Tucson will be dicey especially in the Texas Canyon area east of Benson. 2-5 inches of snow is expected in the valley areas of Cochise and Santa Cruz Counties with blizzard conditions above 6000 feet with 20 inches of snow and winds gusting over 50 mph in the mountains. Strong winds below 6000 feet are also expected but without the heavy snow. A hard freeze will greet New Year's Party goers on Friday night in Tucson. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beavis1729 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Looks like a cold and wet storm for AZ. How often does Tucson see snow? Will the predicted hard freeze around New year's be close to a record? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Looks like a cold and wet storm for AZ. How often does Tucson see snow? Will the predicted hard freeze around New year's be close to a record? Yeah I was just going to ask this, I can't remember Tucson getting snow ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddylonglegs Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Looks like a good freeze for Phoenix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted December 29, 2010 Author Share Posted December 29, 2010 Looks like a cold and wet storm for AZ. How often does Tucson see snow? Will the predicted hard freeze around New year's be close to a record? The airport last had measureable snow in 2002 and a Trace in 2007 when downtown had 1-3 inches (that was also when PHX last had snow). There was also a Trace at the airport and downtown with 1-3 inches in the east side in 2009. I don't know if the low temperature for New Years will be a date record but the record low for Tucson is +6F set in January 1913 and we are not expected to get anywhere near that. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 Snow in Tucson, AZ at 3000 feet is about as rare as snow at Las Vegas at 2000 feet at its farther N latitude, which is about never. St. George, UT at 2500-2800 feet is in the same boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southland Wx Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 I'll be in Arizona a day late...oh well. Heading to PHX for the Fiesta Bowl...I will need the warm clothes for the weekend! Pretty awesome when snow events occur in places like Tucson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted December 29, 2010 Author Share Posted December 29, 2010 Would never say never about snow in Vegas-it snows there about once every 2-3 years on average and they have been known to get decent falls on occasion. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mt.Zoniac Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 Phoenix had severe weather last night: high winds that snapped off tree branches and caused some damage in Paradise Valley, El Mirage and Maricopa. Storms dumped around an inch of rain in the mountains and northern suburbs in Carefree, McDowell Mountains, and vicinity. <br /><br /> Storms also formed ahead of the front running from Picacho Peak to Kearney/Winkelman, moving quickly. Sustained winds were in the +30mph range with gusts over +45mph. <br /><br />As the Cold Front was moving south and east, a southern fetch brought in lots of moisture from the Baja moving north and east. Approximately 4 or 5 hours later the front made it down to the Tucson area, with high winds, heavy rain and quickly dropping temps. Highs of the day started out around 50 degrees. After the front passed, temps steadily dropped to the current 39 degrees, but gale winds are still occurring. On Mt. Lemmon, the southern-most ski area in the U.S., the road was closed and the power eventually went out to everyone up on Summerhaven. They've had blizzard conditions along with Flagstaff, and on all other mountain locations around the State. 17 inches of snow have fallen in Hannigan Meadow up in the White Mountains near Route 191. <br /><br />It's currently snowing as low as Oracle and Saddlebrook near Oro Vally just outside of Tucson. As temps continue to fall, snow levels could drop below 2500 feet -- which means snow within the Tucson city limits, probably in the city foothills and could be as far down as the TIA Tucson International Airport. Hard freeze warnings for most of Southern Arizona including Tucson, Sierra Vista and Ft. Huachuca (including the whole border area). Wonder how many illegals will bite it this week, from abandonment and exposure. <br /><br /> Even Phonecians are under a Freeze warning. Deep storm, cold storm. The south will react badly to this when it hits them; tornadoes likely. <br /><br />Also, last snowfall officially in Tucson was February 10, 2009. Many newspaper photos published of it. <br /><br />Current live webcams from Tucson (mountains obscured) and Phoenix webcam (starting to clear): <br /><br /> <br /><br /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mt.Zoniac Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 <b>BLIZZARD WARNING</b>............... URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ 822 AM MST THU DEC 30 2010 ....................... <a href='http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=psr&wwa=blizzard%20warning' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>http://forecast.weat...zzard%20warning</a> ............................ AZZ510>514-302330- /O.CON.KTWC.BZ.W.0002.000000T0000Z-101231T0200Z/ WHITE MOUNTAINS OF GRAHAM AND GREENLEE COUNTIES- GALIURO AND PINALENO MOUNTAINS-CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS- DRAGOON AND MULE AND HUACHUCA AND SANTA RITA MOUNTAINS- CATALINA AND RINCON MOUNTAINS- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...HANNAGAN MEADOW...MOUNT GRAHAM... CHIRICAHUA NM...BISBEE...CANELO HILLS...MOUNT LEMMON... SUMMERHAVEN 822 AM MST THU DEC 30 2010.................................................................. ...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM MST THIS EVENING............................ A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM MST THIS EVENING.................... * SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...15 TO 28 INCHES ABOVE 6000 FEET AND 8 TO 15 INCHES BETWEEN 5000 AND 6000 FEET FOR ENTIRE STORM............................ * SNOW LEVELS...BELOW 3000 FEET.......................... * WINDS...SOUTHWEST 25 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH............... * IMPACTS...DRIVING CONDITIONS MAY BE DIFFICULT DUE TO SNOW COVERED ROADWAYS AND BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. MOTORISTS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR WINTER WEATHER AND DETERIORATING ROAD CONDITIONS....................... PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS....................... A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS...MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF YOU MUST...HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED...STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.......................................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trjacob1 Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 A good amount of snow fell in the higher elevations. Snow totals from the Flagstaff NWS: PARKS 10NNW 24.0 FOREST LAKES 24.0 PARKS 2N 22.0 N FOREST LAKES 20.0 MUNDS PARK 19.5 ALPINE 18.0 BELLEMONT 18.0 WILLIAMS 6E 17.0 PAYSON 14N 17.0 CHRISTOPHER CREEK/PAYSON 24E 16.0 MUNDS PARK 15.8 FORT VALLEY 15.0 FLAGSTAFF AIRPORT 15.8 CROWN KING 13.0 MCNARY 2N 13.0 GRAND CANYON SOUTH RIM 12.0 KOHL`S RANCH 12.0 CLAY SPRINGS 10.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted December 31, 2010 Author Share Posted December 31, 2010 Band of flurries passed along Broadway in Tucson about a mile north of us but no accumulations in town and no snow at the airport. Our high at the house was 50F shortly before Fropa at 7 AM. Fort Huachuca reported peak wind gusts overnight of 59 mph with rain as the winds came off the mountains in downslope. It did snow there and at Nogales and Douglas and we can see snow on the Catalinas down to about 3500 ft level. Total rainfall at the house was 0.41 in from the storm which is a decent winter storm total for down here and gives us a good December rainfall total despite CPC outlooks calling for well below normal rainfall in December. Our annual total is now over 13 inches-the average annual for the airport is slightly over 12 inches but we tend to be a bit wetter since we are closer to the mountains. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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