HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

Front and back yard views from our house @3:30pm. Sugarloaf and Black Mountain got dusted. Much more snow in the forecast for tomorrow morning. The smell is amazing.

LosDosSloFolks wrote:The smell is amazing.

I love the smell of fresh snow, although it's not enough to compensate for the inconvenience.

We're expecting 1-3" in my part of NJ tomorrow, maybe 3-5" at my elevation. The last couple storms didn't amount to anything, but our luck is due to run out.

As of 3:30, 8 inches of snow at my home in Payson.

Nighthiker wrote: ↑Jan 25 2021 3:50 pm As of 3:30, 8 inches of snow at my home in Payson.

That's on the border between inconvenient and dispiriting.

@LosDosSloFolks
I guess that I'd better cancel my plans to hike Sugarloaf tomorrow...lol

@DixieFlyer
Just bring a lightweight sled or saucer for the quick ride down.

@LosDosSloFolks
you might be on to something!

After the deluge this afternoon, my rain gauge is showing just under 1.0" of rain over the last 3 days

@LosDosSloFolks
Do you know the street value, of THAT mountain!?!

Some snow in the south this morning, mostly melted now but around Arivaca pretty good snow showers and one road I ended up turning around on as the vehicle was starting to bog down a bit with the mud/ snow combo and I was first tracks and it was just going to get worse. Beautiful at times though with a few stops to look around. Already some big pools of water on the road, some nourishment for the desert.

This appears to be the kind of storm we needed. I live near where the CDO wash crosses over a big dip in the road and the county will close a gate to prevent cars from driving through if water in the wash. Doesn't take much rain in a summer monsoon to get the gate closed. Drove through the CDO wash this morning and it was dry as a bone. Nice gentle storm where the rain soaked in nicely without runoff.

@SpiderLegs
It was probably all soaked up by the neighborhood saguaros.

DixieFlyer wrote:I guess that I'd better cancel my plans to hike Sugarloaf tomorrow...lol

Snow only makes a boring desert hike more interesting. Embrace different!

chumley wrote: ↑Jan 26 2021 4:51 pm

DixieFlyer wrote:I guess that I'd better cancel my plans to hike Sugarloaf tomorrow...lol

Snow only makes a boring desert hike more interesting. Embrace different!

I love hiking in desert snow, as long as it's not deep enough to slow me down.

@big_load
The peaks had up to 8", but mostly 4-6" along the trails there. Definitely slows you down a bit more than bare ground, but nothing that should stop anybody with a good pair of hiking boots.

chumley wrote: ↑Jan 26 2021 8:27 pm @big_load
The peaks had up to 8", but mostly 4-6" along the trails there. Definitely slows you down a bit more than bare ground, but nothing that should stop anybody with a good pair of hiking boots.

Six inches is about when it starts being work. It's still enjoyable if I scale back distance and take my time. Eight is enough to consider XC skis.

We were at the Barnhardt TH yesterday and there was at least a foot of snow in the parking lot. I was going to fly the drone for snow on the Mazzie photos, when I heard that telltale sound in my wife's voice as she said...Donner party of 3, your table is ready.

Alston_Neal wrote:We were at the Barnhardt TH yesterday and there was at least a foot of snow in the parking lot.

That reminds me our scary night at Sandy Saddle in the first Thanksgiving weekend after the fire. It was cloudy when we hit the trail with a supposed 20% chance of rain. It turned into an all-night thunderstorm with close range lightning for 12 hours, a couple inches of hail piling up against the tent, and flash floods on both sides of us that pretty much erased the trail. At least six inches of snow fell in the morning as we were bailing out.

When we got to the parking area, a pickup truck that had recently arrived was retreating ahead of us. Another one had already slid off the road and was probably somewhat damaged. We were in a typical 4-door rental sedan, but made it out at something slower than a walking pace.

We have just short 30" of snow on the ground now, with perhaps another 16 hours left in the storm, so we could get up to another foot. I parked my car at the bottom of the driveway, about five feet back from the street. That gap now a wall of hard-packed snow four feet high and five feet thick. I suppose I should get some pics before we start digging.

The official total for my town was 32". Even though we've had more locally a couple times since I lived here, this looks like it will go down as the biggest snowfall in history statewide, pending NWS confirmation.

This evening the neighbors brought in some guys to shovel their roof, which is steeper than ours. Four guys worked on it for five and a half hours. It looked like an perfect combination of unpleasant and dangerous.