STORM2K

Snow levels down to 7000' TONIGHT This IS May after all, RIGHT? I don't think the weather is EVER going to change this year, talk about GROUCHY people, I've NEVER seen SOOOOOO many grouchy people in my life........it's amazing how the weather affects people


http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz

DISCUSSION...STRONG COLD FRONT ON THE WAY INTO ARIZONA TODAY AND TONIGHT AS YET ANOTHER COLD TROUGH WORKS THROUGH THE GREAT BASIN. WINDS AHEAD OF THE FRONT WILL REACH ADVISORY CRITERIA ACROSS MANY OF THE FLAGSTAFF ZONES TODAY...THE ONLY EXCEPTION BEING THE LOWER ELEVATION ZONES SOUTH OF THE RIM. MOISTURE IS LIMITED WITH THIS SYSTEM...BUT STRONG DYNAMICS...UPSLOPE FLOW...AND INCREASING INSTABILITY WILL COMBINE FOR SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS BY THIS AFTERNOON. BY THE EVENING...COLDER MID LEVELS AIR WORKS INTO THE AREA WITH THE THREAT OF CONVECTION LINGERING INTO WEDNESDAY. THE COLDEST AIR WILL ARRIVE OVERNIGHT TONIGHT AND EARLY WEDNESDAY WITH SNOW LEVELS BRIEFLY FALLING TO AROUND 7000 FEET FROM FLAGSTAFF NORTHWARD. THE SYSTEM SLOWLY MOVES NORTH BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND THURSDAY...WITH THE THREAT FOR SHOWERS DECREASING. HGHTS RECOVER THURSDAY...WITH RIDGING INTO NEXT WEEKEND...LOOKS LIKE AN ACTUAL WARMING TREND AND LIGHT WINDS ON THE HORIZON. PETERSON.

You ready to come down off that mountain there buddy? I've got a nice cold Corona for you in hot steamy Houston!

A chilly 86 degrees over here in Louisiana. Beautiful blue sky and no chance of rain. Its horrible. LOL........ Hope things get nicer for you soon there Azsnowman.

u must be way up in the mountains......... arizona is an exteme state like california nevada and Texas... alot of people associate arizona with just phoenix so they think its hot in arizona because phoenix is just plain hot dry heat or no dry heat compared to other cities... same thing with las vegas and nevada and people forget california is more then sunny warm year round los angeles and sandiego and sanfransisco. and texas is the same with the extreme temperature difference between south/southeast texas and the snowy panhandle and big bend mountains .... arizona is probalby the most extreme though phoenix is one of the hottest cites in the country and flagstaff is one of the coldest and there only about 5 hrs. apart i think... the texas rangers had spring training in arizona. i forget the city must have been phoenix or tuscon though. how far away is phoenix from where u live?

Snow lives in the White Mountains in eastern AZ at 7000' elevation. I live in far SE AZ at 4500'. Yuma is considered the hottest city in the US though Bullhead and Lake Havasu are right up there. As for dry heat-well we have this annual event here called the monsoon (Arizona's 5th season) which occurs between July 7 and September 7 on average. During this period, although the RRH readings may seem dry the dewpoints in Phoenix are generally in the 60's and even 70's which is hardly dry heat (highest dewpoint in PHX that I've ever seen was 77F) Yuma sees dewpoints in the high 70's to low 80's quite frequently during the Summer as moisture flows in from the Sea of Cortez. Yuma once came in with a TT/TdTd of 113/77 which resulted in a most uncomfortable heat index (usually when the dews are that high in Yuma the temperature is "only" in the low 100F range).

Steve

i read the biggest temperature difference at one time in a state was in texas when on april 27th 1985 in brownsville at the most southern tip of texas it was 105 degrees and in amarillo in the texas panhandle it was 35 degrees with moderate snow. arizona is problaby the most extreme state though. u have an extended winter in flagstaff is one of the snowiest cities in the country and it looks like phoenix is only 4 hrs.. away wow that is unreal.... does the deserts block the cold and snow?? how far away is phoenix from flagstaff? thats very interesting.....

Phoenix is about 180 miles (2.5 hour drive) and 5800 feet lower than Flagstaff. It's the mountains around Flag that block the rain from PHX.
On a daily basis, you will have a solid 40-50 degree temperature difference between SFO (60's) and Sacramento (100-110) which is 100 miles away. There's also many a day during the Summer when Death Valley will be in the 118F-122F (or higher) range in the afternoon and Truckee CA will be around freezing down into the low 20's in the early morning (morning lows in Death Valley are in the 95-100F range).

Steve

ya the elevation and the mountains can make a huge difference. In texas the the entire panhandle has 3000 to 4000 ft. of elevation and the entire big bend (that dip in Texas by el paso) has 2000 to 8000 ft of elevation and mountains cover the whole big bend region like the davis and guadulupe and the whole davis mountain chain is 8000 ft. temps r brutally cold and snowy in the big bend of texas like the mountains of arizona and new mexico though not as cold and snowy as az and nm... i wouldnt be surprised if there was snow sking in the davis mountains... alot of people from Dallas ski in ruidoso new mexico because its relatively close 625 miles away that is the most southern ski resort in the USA in far south New Mexico. Ruidoso, New Mexico sits at the same latitude as Dallas fort worth just go straight west from Dallas and u run right into it..

Snow levels down to 7000' TONIGHT This IS May after all, RIGHT? I don't think the weather is EVER going to change this year, talk about GROUCHY people, I've NEVER seen SOOOOOO many grouchy people in my life........it's amazing how the weather affects people

Yep - there's alot of grouchy people in the NE as well with the colder than normal temps - like myself!!!

Of course I took Friday off on Monday because it was supposed to be 71 and partly sunny. Now it's cloudy, 62 and drizzle - WHOOPEEE!!!!

Actually, the ski resort on Mt. Lemmon close to Tucson is further south than Ruidoso and is the southernmost ski resort in the lower 48. Tucson is at 2200' eklevation and Mt. Lemmon is 9431'. Furthest south you can go skiing in the entire US is on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Steve

welcome big tex! glad to have you here!

Fine... you can have my 90 degree heat and humidity! This sucks considering it's about 3 weeks early.

Ruidoso Nm is acually only 450-550 miles from dallas fort worth...closer then i thought.... man there is a ski resort near tuscon.. well that one is the southern most ski resort and ruidoso is 2nd i guess. everybody from dfw goes to ruidoso to ski... ya elevation extends to abilene tx at 1781 ft elevation 3 hrs west of fort worth even dallas has 500 to 700 ft. elevation and fort worth has 700 to 1000 ft.in mineral wells in west ft. worth that problaly explains why fort worth sees more snow then dallas does sometimes.......

welcome big texan! we are originally from texas and my son is known as big tex. lol good to see you here!