Snews

The blog title "Snews" is a combination of two words: Snow & News.  So, here you have today's Snews.

Today's going to be a fairly normal late December day.  We might even be able to have a campfire tonight, perhaps the last campfire of this year.

On Wednesday, the weather really takes a turn for another side.  If you don't like snow, it's a turn to the bad side.  If you like snow, it's a turn to the good side.  (It's a glass half empty, half full sort of thing.)

Pretty much all of Arizona is going to be impacted by this storm including the very low of the lowest deserts.
Surface winds have potential to gust to 60 mph!  The High Country could easily get as much as a foot of snow on the plateaus.  The Snowbowl Ski Area could get a couple of feet.  We're figuring perhaps 3-6 inches even down here at our 3500 foot elevation.  The NWS is waffling at predicting how low the snow will go.  Yesterday they said "sown down to 1,000 feet."  Today it's 1500 feet.  At either elevation, that takes in a huge swath of lowlands and will likely turn The Sonoran Desert into a spectacular visual dessert topped with ample powdered sugar. (We can't even imagine what it's going to be like on the NASCAR freeways down there.)

We don't often get real snow here at Montezuma Well.  It's rare.  When we have had snow it's typically 1-3 inches and is usually gone by lunchtime.  The NWS says this story is going to be VERY cold so it's possible our snow cover will stick around a day or two or maybe more.  We're thinking this has the potential to be the most snow we've experienced at this site since we moved here in 1993.

Most of the residential landscaping down in the Phoenix area is in real danger from this storm.  It's going to be a very hard and long freeze there and could easily be accompanied by actual real snow that turns the urban area white.  How wild would that be?  Really wild!  Since it is the College Bowl Season and since three bowls are being played in the Valley, the Phoenix Chamber is probably in damage control mode.  "Ugh," they are saying, "these pictures of snow in The Valley will be beamed all over the world--how can we stop this snow from happening?"  We can only imagine the handwringing going on at Chamber Central.  Wouldn't it be hilarious if some Sky Harbor flights were canceled because of snow.  WHAT?  CNN, The Weather Channel and FOX News are going to have a field day with this snews.  Hilarious.

Well, there you have your snews.  Keep an eye on TV weather and watch it unfold between now and New Year's Eve.  You sure won't see this happen very often.  History Happens, as they say.

Cheers, jp