Desert Snow

The mesquite tree bows in the wet February snow

Today's post highlights the wonderful desert snow that hit the southern part of Arizona on Sunday morning. Snow watches and warnings were posted on Thursday already; by Saturday the winds had picked up but the temperatures had been in the sixties and it was hard to imagine a snowstorm of the magnitude that was forecast.

Rain began around 2 am on Sunday morning. When I got up at 5am I couldn't hear the rain and knew that there might be snow. I got up, turned on the coffee pot and looked out the front door. Already I could tell that the mesquite tree in the front patio was bowing under the weight of the wet snow. At dawn the scope of the storm was apparent; a considerable amount of snow had fallen, blanketing the desert and the mountains with white wonder.



Northwest of Tucson -- Twin Peaks in Snow

"Ed, I'm going to walk up the street and get some shots of the mountains, " is what I told Ed around sunrise. I bundled up in jeans, hiking boots, gloves and a fleece. Armed with my Flip video camera and the point-and-shoot Sony, I headed up North Heritage Canyon Drive. When I got to the top of the hill I kept on going down the road, up onto the thirteenth and fourteenth holes of the golf course.

The views were stunning. I almost filled an entire 2 gigabyte memory card with bracketed shots. My walk lasted more than an hour. By noon, the snow had almost completely melted. Today (Monday) there was still a little snow on the distant mountainsides but most of the white had disappeared even from the mountains. When we golfed this afternoon there were lots of spongy wet areas on the course. The snow had melted and left wet turf behind.

It was a wonderful snow -- quite a reminder of the majesty of weather.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler