Atmosphere Comparison

[Jim]

The endless chatter of weather.

[chumley]

I just read in the discussion that there's a follow-up system coming on Saturday that is "as serious as the first...a more proficient snow producer and more headlines may be needed"

Now that's what I want to see!

[Jim]

Well, keep your fingers crosses, or whatever, as I recall many a time the NWS forecast office got excited, posted predictions just like that, and then the second storm was about as significant as a dusting of snow and a slight cool down.

[Jim]

A blizzard warning is up for the southern Sacramento Mountains below 7,500'. Not for snow, but wind. About 3 to 5 inches is all that is forecast, but high winds are, too. http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.p ... rd+Warning

[azbackpackr]

The important thing (to me) is that it is suppose to be clear and sunny a week from today, when I am making the long drive!!

[Jim]

The important thing for me, in a direct selfish way, is that the desert in central and southern Arizona gets enough winter rain to have a nice green up and flower display in March.

[paulhubbard]

The important thing for me, in a direct selfish way, is that Zion will have new snow and bright sunny skies on Monday when we're there to get wintery photos!

[Hippy]

I'm no weather woman but Hey it's snowing in Flag and I'm more giddy about it then my 4 year old

[cactuscat]

Couple inches at south rim so far.
I am too sick to be giddy.

[Jim]

Some impressive rain-log reported totals around the Valley and Tucson. Forecast are actually for more snow on Mt Lemmon than on the Peaks, and it would be funny to see Ski the Lemmon open before Snowbowl. Snowbowl reports 8 to 10 inches. No Lemmon Reports, but the NWS still has a weather story up which forecasts 12-18 inches for mountains north of I-10 and over 7,000'.

[CannondaleKid]

We had .7" of rain overnight in East Mesa. Wish it was more.

[paulhubbard]

We had .7" of rain overnight in East Mesa.

It looked like it barely sprinkled at my house in Red Mnt Ranch...

[azbackpackr]

We had a couple inches early this morning, mostly all melted. My daughter says it's still coming down in Flag, though. I'll attach a photo of the view out my kitchen window this morning.

When I was fairly new to Arizona, back in 1989, my husband was given his stepmother's '78 Chevy Blazer (we still have it) and he had to fly up to Omaha, Nebraska, to retrieve it and drive it back home to Tucson. When he got back home, I got in the vehicle and opened up the console. There were two items in there--long plastic tool-like things. I didn't know what they were, so I asked him. He said, "Ice scrapers." I said, "Ice scrapers??" He said, "For the windshield." I said, "For the windshield? Oh, ice on the windshield, like, when it's cold in Nebraska?" He just sort of rolled his eyes.

Sigh... Well. I certainly know what one is now...

[cactuscat]

Sorry no Canyon snow pics - I am too sick to leave the house - but here is my front yard. Still coming down, several more inches expected!

[Jim]

More snow for Arizona. Rain, too. Someone ought to dig up the wildflower threads. Unless it dries out, this might be a good spring. Will Snowbowl open after the mid-week storms? Even though the off trail winter routes won't be available yet, it is nice to see enough snow to let them open.

[outdoor_lover]

These are great Rains. Nice, soaking Rains, not gully washers. Will certainly help out the soil and vegetation.

[Jim]

Yeah, and totals have been pretty good, too. Chance of more mid-week, but that is still out there for really predicting. While there won't yet be enough for good back country travel, I could see Snowbowl opening next weekend if this mid-week storm is as much as they are forecasting. You need about at least 36, and closer to 48 inches of snow on the rocks to cover them and make them safe. Plus, there is a lot of down trees that are easy to get around with more coverage.

I looked back at last year's records and saw that Flagstaff had a great December and a pretty good March and April, but an abysmal January and February. Hopefully, that doesn't work out this year. I remember it being dry in March when I was in Tucson, but there was a half decent storm shortly before I arrived in April, though it didn't do much for the vegetation in the desert by that time. I remember it being warm and dry in January, in Kayenta, and I liked it that way. It was far more pleasant than the cold of December, which was really cold when I was in La Plata Canyon in early December. I also remember it being really dry for the San Juan Mountains in Colorado the last time I was there in mid-January, before I switched over to the Spencer Trail. Entire mountain slopes bare and melted off, thin snow in most places, and the resorts had thin coverage, too. I think part of that was the track the storms took last year, coming out of Nevada and not off the ocean near southern California, so they were dry and didn't produce much. So far, things look good. Here's to potentially good storm tracks in 2013.

[Jim]

Snowbowl and Ski the Lemmon are saying they will both open on Thursday the 20th. More snow coming in to AZ tonight. Looks like a good few storms. I wonder if Snowbowl ever made snow this season, or if they will become operational and make snow if they have a mid-season drought?

[chumley]

Sunrise is scheduled to open tomorrow.

AFAIK Snowbowl does not yet have the snowmaking operational ... at least that's my assumption based on their "silence" on the issue, and inability to predict an opening date more than 3 days in advance.

The pipeline is in, the retention pond is in, and in theory, the infrastructure is in place for all the green and blue terrain from the midway station and below. But if it was actually operational, I think they would be advertising it and not basing all their opening date discussions on weather forecasts and snowfall.

That said, it's nice when AZ gets into a storm pattern for a couple of weeks. It looks like this hasn't been that great, all-in-all (storms are dropping snow generally measured in inches, not feet, even at the higher elevations), but I'm not complaining. It had been a dry Nov-Dec up until now.

[Jim]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the forecast for the Sierra above 5,000' in the I-80 corridor, is for 4 to 5 feet of new snow over the next few days. Maybe we'll ( I mean "you'll") get a bit of that in the next week or two? Over here, 2 inches is a lot, and that is up over 8,000', too.
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/FXC/wxstory.php?wfo=sto

[Jim]

Two degrees below zero for a number of hours in Flagstaff this morning, Snowbowl, Sunrise and Ski the Lemmon are all open, and there may be more snow early next week. Is it winter in Arizona?


Seriously, is it? Over here in NM nothing is certain.