HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

Ok, we had some snow falling, but the temp is 40 degrees. Then it stopped. Now it's starting to melt. All within the space of an hour.

A light drizzle here, on and off.

cathymocha wrote:Wildflowers this year!

It is too late for the spring wildflowers... you need this rain in Nov and Dec to get us our really nice wildflower season. This late may bring in some later spring ones maybe in the mountains.... The brittlebush are already blooming even though they are a pitiful scrawny bush and ever scrawnier flowers... Saw a few on the beeline going home Sat.

It's been raining cats and dogs here in central Phoenix. We even lost our power for about 2 hours.

Ok, good morning! YES!!!! WE HAVE SNOW!!! I skied out my FRONT DOOR this morning.

It really isn't deep enough in town, though. Only about 4 inches, and too warm. I stopped twice to spray the bottoms of my skis with silicon to prevent the snow from sticking to them, which pretty much stops you in your tracks, and I really didn't get too far. On the way home, skiing slightly downhill and in my own tracks, I was able to get a pretty good kick-and-glide going part of the time.

We have a two-hour delay for school, so I will be out there in the school bus in about an hour and a half from now. That ought to be fun! They don't run our Greer, Sunrise, Nutri, or Dogpatch buses on days like this, at least not all the way, usually. There are some streets in Eagar we don't run, also, as they are very steep near 26 Bar Ranch (John Wayne's old ranch.) Anyway, I just have a town run.

Four Peaks is starting to peek out of the clouds now, but it doesn't look like too much snow is on them. Hard to tell with how the sun isn't hitting it directly yet, though.

The snow level was pretty high, so only the very top of four peaks would have gotten snow anyway.

Its beginning to look like the snow tomorrow will favor the eastern rim and white mountains. NWS calling for 1-2 feet above 7k in the Flag area, while calling for "30 to 50 inches" further east. Sunrise could get pummeled!

It'll be interesting to watch the rivers rise Friday and Saturday. I'm guessing that Tempe Town Waterfall will be flowing pretty good by early next week.

I already bookmarked the real time data page on my laptop!

I wish we WOULD get 50" in my yard, but it is likely to wring itself out over the higher peaks, and give us the leftovers, as always.

It has been sunny and windy this morning, with snow melting quickly, and blowing all over the place.

I just looked at snowbowls weather and currently they have gotten about 2 feet and are going to get 2-4in tonite. 11-17in tomorrow, and then 15-21in tomorrow night. Then 4-8in more friday. WOW!! They have been very accurate on their snowfall amounts so far also. if they are right they will get something like 4 feet. WOw.

Did I say holy cow yet? "Holy cow!"

I guess actually the NWS was accurate as to the 4 inches here in Round Valley as well, come to think of it.

I also heard mount lemmon ski valley got 10in with possibly another 14 on the way.

I-17 is closed from mile marker 298 to 337. Basically from Sedona to Flagstaff both North and South. It must be a little stormy out ;)

Here's one of my favorite webcams ... its in Fort Valley. The power goes out occasionally, and I would expect it to go during this storm soon. But I've never seen their snowstick disappear, and I'm pretty sure it'll be gone by tonight.
http://www.rmrs.nau.edu/fortvalley/webc ... t_mega.jpg

Watch the snow turn to rain below 8000' feet and all of our non-ski area gains melt.

Now, with what we have happening so far, we should make some predictions for the 2 months or so of the winter wet season which remain. I have read that a Pineapple Express is modeled to set up for next week. It won't do much if anything for us, but it would be a huge boon for California.
I predict that we will continue to have a wet winter, with many more storms and possibly this sort of pattern occuring several more times. I also predict that for the first time since 2005 and my living in Flagstaff (August 2006), Flagstaff and the state will have a wet March with several good storms. I really hope that happens. I want to make a March summit of Humphrey in many feet of heavy wet snow, the likes of which I have never seen (in March).

I'm just happy the thread title changed again!

Another storm lined up for middle of next week looks to be a good snow-producer, but its still a bit far out to get a good idea on it. I'd be very happy if this season ends up like it did in 92-93. Snowbowl clocked over 400 inches that year and on closing day in April still had a settled base of over 100".

Looks like El Nino has some power this year, damn him! We need moisture but I'm so sick of shoveling snow.

I'm just happy to be able to play with fluffy this Sunday.

Both Snowbowl and Sunrise have closed for the day due to the dangerous conditions caused by the storm. Wow!
I'd be surprised if either can get their employees on site to open tomorrow either.

chumley wrote:Here's one of my favorite webcams ... its in Fort Valley. The power goes out occasionally, and I would expect it to go during this storm soon. But I've never seen their snowstick disappear, and I'm pretty sure it'll be gone by tonight

Well the camera is being covered by snow from the top of the bird feeder.....So you can't see how much is there....
http://forestlakesweather.com/live_camera.html
and this is the one for Forest Lakes the icicles are getting a little bit in the way...