Snow in Arizona?!?

[Puritan]

I had a really interesting vacation story and was curious if anyone else has encountered something like this. This past Friday I flew out to El Paso, TX to visit a friend of mine stationed there, and he had planned a road trip to show another friend and I some of the sights in the area. We check the weather, and it looks chilly for the area (40's to 50's) but nothing that native Wisconsinites aren't used to, so we begin driving through New Mexico and Arizona toward the Painted Desert. The weather begins to look stormy, and, lo and behold, we run into a snow storm. A snow storm in ARIZONA. For about 150 miles we drive through conditions that would be considered bad in Wisconsin, seeing such bizarre sights as tumbleweeds and cacti covered with snow. Needless to say, you can't really see the Painted Desert or the other outside sights we were planning on visiting when they are covered by snow, so we headed back to El Paso and watched people panic at the slightly snowy roads along the way.

While the weather may have ruined my sightseeing, it definitely made my vacation interesting. Another story my future children or grandchildren (if I have any someday) will never believe.

[Felix]

I have a friend in Arizona and he told me all about it. That's really weird o.O But also very cool.

[GrubbTheFragger]

wow snow in arizona thats interesting. not alot of snow in maine but snow in arizona.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

shoulda had a camera man!

[Sakura15]

Thats so cool! ^-^

[everdred12a]

It probably has something to do with a government conspiracy. Area 51 and all that.

>.>....<.<....>.>

But you didn't hear it from me. SHHH!

Actually, that is pretty strange. I've never been to Arizona (or anywhere in the southwest, for that matter), but whenever people mention Arizona, I instantly think Desert. I guess it comes down to that whole thing where Greenland is covered with ice, but Iceland isn't....

[livewire]

It probably has something to do with a government conspiracy. Area 51 and all that.

lol....that's funny!

on topic....
That is so cool. Snow in Arizona is intersting...
how about....snow in Mississippi?
A long, long time ago my dad was stationed (he was in the Navy) in Mississippi, we lived in Gulfport...
anyways, it snowed once. But, the funny thing is that the ground was still so warm that the snow was melting about a foot above it. The only place it didn't melt was on the cars and other surfaces that tend to cool quickly. When Kazekami and I woke up in the morning people had built little snowmen on the hoods of the cars! 0_o

[beau99]

Actually, that is pretty strange. I've never been to Arizona (or anywhere in the southwest, for that matter), but whenever people mention Arizona, I instantly think Desert. I guess it comes down to that whole thing where Greenland is covered with ice, but Iceland isn't....

Actually, any area of AZ with a higher elevation than Phoenix gets snow each year. It's really normal.

[everdred12a]

Maybe it really isn't all that strange. It's just, I've never been there before, so I don't *really* know what it's like there. But whenever I think of Arizona, 'desert' is the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe it's because of all of the Wile E. Coyote cartoons or something like that. I don't really know. I did forget to take the mountainous parts of the west into account, though.

When Kazekami and I woke up in the morning people had built little snowmen on the hoods of the cars! 0_o

That is most definitely a Kodak moment. I wish stuff like that happened in Georgia. We don't get anything cool...

[Wave]

That's funny! How much snow was on the ground? I used to live in Arizona. It's not that unusual to get 2 or 3 inches of snow every year, but from what you said it does not sound like a typical Arizona snow storm. Arizona weather is weird though. I remember one time we were playing in our back yard, when we herd this funny noise. The noise sounded like a really hard rain, but it was not raining at all. That was when we realized that it was raining really hard, in our neighbor's back yard! That’s right it was poring on the other side off the fence! It soon started poring on our side of the fence, but it was still really bizarre standing there completely dry and watching the ground get soaked not ten feet a away.

wave

[Puritan]

That's funny! How much snow was on the ground? I used to live in Arizona. It's not that unusual to get 2 or 3 inches of snow every year, but from what you said it does not sound like a typical Arizona snow storm.

It was snowing hard for several hours (we drove ~150 miles through the storm), and I estimate the snow topped 6 inches in some places. Visibility was limited to ~10 to 15 feet, and if it weren't for the tracks of earlier vehicles we would have had a really hard time getting through. I saw only one storm in Wisconsin this year that was worse than this one, so it seemed really strange that I got hit by this storm while on spring break in Arizona. It was a wierd experience, let me tell you.

[CDLviking]

Northern Arizona has a pretty high elevation, and much of it is forest. Arizona is mostly desert, but a good deal of the Northern half is not.

[Bobtheduck]

Well, I'm from a desert, and it snowed about once every 3 years... Well, that's how often it stuck, anyhow. It would snow several times a year, every year, but not be enough to stick usually... In LA, it never snows... Except, this year it did... It snowed in Azusa, and I think in Pasadena... It didn't stick where I was, but I could smell it... Ooh, snow smells nice.

[Dante]

We got rain down in Glendale, actual rain, FROM THE SKY! Yeah it was a big storm, but it the only one we got all winter! Indeed though, the mountains up north were all covered in snow, and it was about one of the few days in the year that you could see it from Phoenix. Four peaks were really covered from the top to the bottom and the big water retention thingy near our house was all flooded out... the next day people were rowing boats in it O.o . Actually it seems kinda dumb because that water isn't exactly the cleanest .

But no, we normally get snow, it’s just that we normally get more of it over a longer period of time. But we never get it in Phoenix, only up near Flagstaff, with the pines... But actually our thunderstorms during the monsoon season are far cooler! The best was on August 14, 1996 if remember. Three storm cells combined over Phoenix and we had wind gusts up to 120 miles per hour. There was lightning every second, and I remember that it had a purplish color to it. It knocked down walls and lots of large trees. In particular I remember that it knocked our neighbor’s air conditioner off of his house, right onto the side of his truck. By the way here's the proof,

August 14 1996

We also supposedly had a funnel cloud go over our house. I didn't see the funnel but it was reported to have gone directly over our house. But we did hear a rolling thunder that just went on and on in that storm and never stopped. On top of that the clouds in that storm were moving north at an incredible speed. I've never quite seen cloud movement that fast ever before. But yeah we have the coolest weather out here when it isn't sunny and hot... But yeah, there was some snow, and now it is almost all gone except way up high. I went there yesterday and had a lot of fun on my snow "boogie board" but too much snow had already melted and I almost snapped it in two.

Here's some cool photos I found off the net of our monsoon storms (misses storms alot, darn draught SP?)


A dust storm rolling into Phoenix, the site said that it was Tuscon, but I recognize the Bank One building and that wierd radio tower thingy... Tuscon always gets the credit for all of our cool storms.


Rain! Yes it does rain in Arizona... Hopefully, this weekend.

Pascal

[Soukoru]

We got rain down in Glendale, actual rain, FROM THE SKY!

REEEHHH???? You live in Glendale??? O.O

Wow, that's weird... I live in Glendale too. If you look at my avatar, it says I live in AZ but someone to live THAT close to me....

Another synopsis...

Yes there was snow. Let me elaborate on that though. It normally snows in Arizona every year if you talk about all of Arizona including Flagstaff. But that's just normal because of Flagstaff's high elevation.

We ALMOST got snow in Phoenix. The Weather Channel and the WeatherBug issued a Winter Advisory stating that there was going to be snow at 2000 feet. Phoenix is 3000 feet. The temperature dropped enough to have snow in Phoenix for the first time in 10 years. The last time we had snow in Phoenix was when I was 3 years old. Oh and Pascal, I don't think we should include the time when it hailed so much that it was almost like having snow.

As for the weird weather, I agree. The August '96 was the worst storm in history for Phoenix. Too bad I don't have pictures of it. Digital cameras and camera phones weren't really popular back then. To explain how bad it was, ALL the news stations were covering it, the weathermen on the news were extremely confused and everyone sorta prepared for the worst. But we didn't know what to really expect.

The clouds turned blacker than black. And then they did something weird which made any and everyone go crazy. The clouds started turning green. Not green as in faint tint green, more like a solid dark murky green that could be seen everywhere. Even the news cameras picked up the green clouds. The day the sky turned green really.

It gets worse. My father decides to go out for dinner that night. I was against it the whole time. I was right too. As we walked out, the sky was green and I saw another freaky thing. An inverted tornado. Let me explain that. You know how a tornado spins and a cloud starts coming down? This one spinned and rotated upward. If that weren't enough, my mom (who was born and raised in Chicago) felt as if it was tornado weather. No animals or birds out. No wind. Just total eerie silence.

As we went to the restaurant and turned the corner and it started. The first blast of wind was about 60mph then picked up almost instantly to 100mph. I know this because our van was stuggling at a little over 3000rpm and we went about 10-15mph into the wind. A duststorm kicked up and visiblity was only about 2 arms length in front of you. We got hail, massive amounts of rain and lots of lightning. Afterwards, our damages included our neighbors having 5 A/Cs offline. We have a van with mud plastered to side. Small rocks and pebbles had caused enough damage to our van that we had to replace all our van's left windows and get body work done on the whole left side. School's were delayed. Supermarkets had to repair their roofs. Everybody was in a mess.

The weird weather doesn't end there though Pascal. You forgot to mention the 2 tornados warnings we had in February of 2005. Luckly they happened to be over by Circle City which is on the way to Wickenberg. Only one torbado ever touched the ground. The others were just funnel clouds and none of them hit.

I remember the one that went over Glendale. The one tornado warning in January was for Phoenix, Glendale and Scottsdale. The funnel cloud went over me. I didn't realize it until after I learned why it hailed all of a sudden. I looked outside and realized later that the funnel cloud had passed right over me.

lol anyways, that's all the weird stuff that happens in a state that doesn't change for Daylight Savings Time. <sigh> oh well.

[Puritan]

But no, we normally get snow, it’s just that we normally get more of it over a longer period of time.

Yeah, I found that out when I mentioned my trip to one of my Professors yesterday. He lived in Arizona when he was a kid and gave me a short lecture on the fact that snow is normal in some parts of Arizona. Makes sense that it snows at higher elevations, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

And my word, that storm is impressive. 120 mph winds, purple lightning and green clouds sounds exactly like tornado weather, in fact a green sky is considered a warning of tornadoes here. Wish I could have seen it, while a bit scary it is really cool to see storms like that (I'm a little crazy that way).

[Dante]

We ALMOST got snow in Phoenix. The Weather Channel and the WeatherBug issued a Winter Advisory stating that there was going to be snow at 2000 feet. Phoenix is 3000 feet. The temperature dropped enough to have snow in Phoenix for the first time in 10 years. The last time we had snow in Phoenix was when I was 3 years old. Oh and Pascal, I don't think we should include the time when it hailed so much that it was almost like having snow.

Yeah, but you know our evil heat shield will never let that... or most storms, in. DOOM TO THE Phoenix HEAT SHIELD

As for the weird weather, I agree. The August '96 was the worst storm in history for Phoenix. Too bad I don't have pictures of it. Digital cameras and camera phones weren't really popular back then. To explain how bad it was, ALL the news stations were covering it, the weathermen on the news were extremely confused and everyone sorta prepared for the worst. But we didn't know what to really expect.

The clouds turned blacker than black. And then they did something weird which made any and everyone go crazy. The clouds started turning green. Not green as in faint tint green, more like a solid dark murky green that could be seen everywhere. Even the news cameras picked up the green clouds. The day the sky turned green really.

It gets worse. My father decides to go out for dinner that night. I was against it the whole time. I was right too. As we walked out, the sky was green and I saw another freaky thing. An inverted tornado. Let me explain that. You know how a tornado spins and a cloud starts coming down? This one spinned and rotated upward. If that weren't enough, my mom (who was born and raised in Chicago) felt as if it was tornado weather. No animals or birds out. No wind. Just total eerie silence.

I remember that green tint too, but it was only visible towards the beggining of the storm... But the storm lasted through the night so its visibility is to be expected. I was sitting in my wooden fort watching it come in, when the wall of wind hit. The fort (though well made) shook like crazy and then my mother ran outside to yell at me to come in. But what was really cool, was the fact that I could jump into the air and the wind would carry me partially forward. I didn't even have to run, I could sorta moonjump my way to the house! When we went to the front padio to watch (like I always do to my mother's concern) you could see the physical boundaries between where one wind gust started and and ended. In the front there would be a thick layer of moving dust, granted it was moving at about 100 some odd miles an hour near our house but that was really wild. I don't remember the tornado though, I think I saw a wall cloud to our north, but that would have had to have been near that small hill-mountain to our north thats covered in strange sorta lava type rocks. Storms are cool.

Pascal

[Stephen]

*laughs as the southeners get snow too*

[Soukoru]

I remember that green tint too, but it was only visible towards the beggining of the storm... But the storm lasted through the night so its visibility is to be expected. I was sitting in my wooden fort watching it come in, when the wall of wind hit. The fort (though well made) shook like crazy and then my mother ran outside to yell at me to come in. But what was really cool, was the fact that I could jump into the air and the wind would carry me partially forward. I didn't even have to run, I could sorta moonjump my way to the house! When we went to the front padio to watch (like I always do to my mother's concern) you could see the physical boundaries between where one wind gust started and and ended. In the front there would be a thick layer of moving dust, granted it was moving at about 100 some odd miles an hour near our house but that was really wild. I don't remember the tornado though, I think I saw a wall cloud to our north, but that would have had to have been near that small hill-mountain to our north thats covered in strange sorta lava type rocks. Storms are cool.

Pascal

Ah yes. I forgot about flying. My friend who weighed about 140 at the time decided to go outside at the time while the storm was going strong. He jumped in the air and counted to 5 seconds before landing again. Basically, he flew, no wings, no special shoes, just a lot of wind.

Sigh, yes Arizona does have a heat shield. Its called the mountains everywhere surrounding us. They prevent any moisture and clouds from getting in. Only random hurricanes and tornadic weather that sometimes gets in.

Lava type rocks? O.o I have no idea what your talking about. Is it somewhere around Anthem?

[PigtailsJazz]

I'm at ASU, and we got rain there just before I left for home for spring break....was the first time in 143 days right? I know the last time it rained there was October.

But it had been snowing in northern Scottsdale and Cave Creek...I have some friends who were supposed to take a trip to Colorado and got delayed because of all the snow around Payson...

[CDLviking]

Why does it have to rain when I'm not home? Of course it's always raining in Oregon, but it's not the same as Phoenix rain.

[Dante]

Ah yes. I forgot about flying. My friend who weighed about 140 at the time decided to go outside at the time while the storm was going strong. He jumped in the air and counted to 5 seconds before landing again. Basically, he flew, no wings, no special shoes, just a lot of wind.

WOW! 5 seconds, that's a long time, but I believe it. I wish I could have spent more time outside than on our patio.

Sigh, yes Arizona does have a heat shield. Its called the mountains everywhere surrounding us. They prevent any moisture and clouds from getting in. Only random hurricanes and tornadic weather that sometimes gets in.

Not really the mountains as much as the massive city streets. Note that the storms move over the mountains rather rapidly but come to a dead halt when they come near the outskirts of pheonix.

Lava type rocks? O.o I have no idea what your talking about. Is it somewhere around Anthem?

Etttooo... You know which hill like thing I'm talk about, I know you do, you just can't see the rocks until you're closer. It's the closest moutain-hill like land structure to the north of Bell Road. It's rather ugly and has the same texture as the closest mountain directly to our east (The big one that blocks out the city skyline). But anyways... cool day today, a few sprinkles not enough for anything major. 50 degrees out though according to our car. (Shivers)

[Jaltus-bot]

I saw snow in Arizona once. We were visiting relatives like 15 years ago and there was a fine layer of snow over the ground one morning.

[Bobtheduck]

Global warming claims another victim.







EDIT:


[button="Stuff"]Ok, I know this was somewhat spammy, but... Well, I won*t get into my views... Snow in LA... that*s just funny... Snow in Arizona? Is there HIGH desert in Arizona? I don*t even know, but if there isn*t, that*s just strange...[/button]

[Soukoru]

WOW! 5 seconds, that's a long time, but I believe it. I wish I could have spent more time outside than on our patio.

Hey, that's a lot when you are in a storm, especially with all the dirt that blows into your face. >.<

Not really the mountains as much as the massive city streets. Note that the storms move over the mountains rather rapidly but come to a dead halt when they come near the outskirts of pheonix.

Blame it on the aliens. Maybe it's cause of the Phoenix Lights? Remember that? (But that's a topic for another thread...)

Etttooo... You know which hill like thing I'm talk about, I know you do, you just can't see the rocks until you're closer. It's the closest moutain-hill like land structure to the north of Bell Road. It's rather ugly and has the same texture as the closest mountain directly to our east (The big one that blocks out the city skyline). But anyways... cool day today, a few sprinkles not enough for anything major. 50 degrees out though according to our car. (Shivers)

It is just north of the 101? I mean, there are a lot of mountains; I'm just not sure of how far these specific mountains that you talk about are.

As for the 50 degrees, I think it was slightly colder. I came out of my class and the rain the was sprinkling down felt colder than normal. Also, it drifted as if it was snow being pushed down by the wind. Almost snow... ALMOST.

Oh well, nothing like this for another 10 years I bet.