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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Wacky Phoenix Weather

Spring Training facility at Salt River Field

We had a sudden and completely unusual winter storm here in Phoenix, Arizona this afternoon.  I was working in Scottsdale with my husband, Dan.  We'd had rain all morning and the rain this afternoon seemed a little slushy so we headed home early.  This was the sight on our way home.




















You'd have to live in Phoenix to know how amazing this sight really is.  My husband is an Arizona native and he cannot remember something so incredible. 
Right outside Brandy's company office


Dan was quick to point out that this isn't really proper snow, but is actually graupel.  Weather.com defines graupel as:

A form of frozen precipitation consisting of snowflakes or ice crystals and supercooled water droplets frozen together.

You can see that  the precipitation is very chunky and slushy.  We didn't see this coming down, just the aftermath in the bumper to bumper traffic.



















What a strange event to see the freeway sign stating "Weather Driving Conditions Drive With Care".  I'm pretty sure anyone where it actually snows will laugh heartily at this sign seeing the sunshine and knowing the real conditions.  However, this is really good advice because generally Phoenix motorists are horrible drivers in anything but clear, sunny weather.  By the by- Dan took these pictures from the passenger's seat.


This one's for our records, folks.  We won't see this again soon.

Andie



2 comments:

  1. Snow in Arizona LOL! I did wonder when I saw this on the news!! Shocking ! You can have some of ours if you want - the end of the drive is now 6ft high with snow accumulation! Have a great Thursday:-)

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    1. Funny, Karon... We get 3/4 in. of slush and are all agog because it "snowed". I take 32 pictures and post the best 9 on my blog because it's a "big deal". You've got 6 ft. high drifts (which must mean you can't see all the way out of your house!) and it is so normal that you don't even notice, let alone take a picture!

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Thank you so much for your kind words. Isn't it fun to encourage one another, even from a distance?