Saturday, March 11, 2006

Desert Weather

Early yesterday afternoon we were driving northbound. As the clouds parted over the mountains - "Is that just the sunlight hitting granite cliffs up there, or could it really be snow?!!"

(Photo taken through windshield with Nikon Coolpix 5200,
the emergency camera I always carry in my pocket or purse.)

A 2-inch snowfall in the Santa Catalina Mountains. The mountain road was closed after 0.5 inch fell and will be closed all day today. Such is life in the desert.
================================
These photos were taken at 8:15 this morning.

SOUTH

WEST

NORTH

EAST

Prediction: 60% chance of thunderstorms
Currently: 82% cloud cover (!), temperature 46 deg.F, humidity 58%, winds 12 mph.

We'll see ...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey pam,

wishing you and the desert all the best!

we're 49 degrees here in minneapolis right now (12:17pm CT), which is very warm for us. we hit 56 degrees yesterday - tying a record high set in 1977.

they say possibly snow on sunday...

love,
thor

Pam in Tucson said...

thor - Sounds like there are strange pockets of warm weather all over the country. I hear the D.C. temps are way up there and everything's blooming: crocuses, forsythia, pear and apple ... Wish I could be back there to see it. Hope you and Greta enjoy the warm day.

Endment said...

Guess one reason people talk about the weather is that they are surprised by it... in the high 60's here in upstate NY

Pam in Tucson said...

endment - ... surprised or delighted ... It's actually raining here; started about 1/2 hour ago - 6 pm MST. I'm sorry for our neighbours, who are having a party planned for outdoors, but ecstatic for the environment.

T. Beth said...

I am in the Chiricahua Mountains and it has been sleeting (tiny balls of snow) on and off for a couple of days. A little higher in the mountains, these tiny snowballs shallowly cover the road and the hillsides.

Cyn Bagley said...

Wow... We had snow too today. Did you have fun in it?

Pam in Tucson said...

t.beth - I hope you're having a blast in the Chiricahuas. Did you get your 2X extender? What are you finding to photograph? I bet the little snowballs make a beautiful background for photography. I can't wait to see your photos.

Cynthia - Unfortunately, the snow is at 8600 feet, where the little "SNOW" marker is on my photo. We're at 2500 feet. But despite the radar indicating that the front would pass us by, it started to rain around 7 pm and has been raining on and off all evening. We hope it will continue, since this is the first rain we've had since last October and the desert has been dry, dry, dry. Hope you had fun in the snow!

Anonymous said...

The road gets closed after 1/2" of snow?

Pam in Tucson said...

Clare - I was wondering if any of you northerners would catch that. As I said, "Such is life in the desert." There is good reason for the road closure, however. Folks down here aren't prepared to drive in snow and if more snow falls there will undoubtedly be accidents and people needing to be rescued. I don't believe the road is closed for people who live up there. Weather forecasters are predicting another 8 inches of snow on the mountain by tomorrow morning - hard to believe right now, because the sky is clear blue with fluffy white clouds.

T. Beth said...

I did get a 2X extender, and in the coming days, I'll post some of the birds I captured with it. :-)

I was thrilled to come home and see snow on the mountains around Tucson. Finally some needed moisture here!

Pam in Tucson said...

t.beth - I'm looking forward to your bird photos from the Chiricahuas. The rain was great and the snow on the mountains was beautiful. I hope there's enough snow in the Catalinas to cause some good runoff.