Flagstaff, Arizona, buried under three feet of snow, the largest amount ever recorded in a single day



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Some places see three feet of snow in one winter. And then there is Flagstaff, Arizona, which saw a lot of snow in 24 hours on Thursday.

"It was a very cold and very unusual event in northern Arizona," said Brian Klimowski, Meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's office in Flagstaff. "We recorded record snow in a number of places – certainly a historic event."

Really historic, indeed. Flagstaff has officially captured 35.9 inches, its highest total of snow in a day since 126 years of record keeping. It disrupts the previous 31-inch total recorded since 1915.

The accumulation of Thursday is not far from being a record for the state. The flags would have needed about three inches more to reach this mark.

Despite monster snow totals, the event was well predicted. Klimowski said the anti-precipitation shield was spreading further west than forecasters expected.

"The storm came as expected, but was a bit stronger in the Flagstaff area," he said.

The Office of the Meteorological Service kept two staff members in a nearby hotel, expecting a travel distance of 15 km from the city center. "We had to plan ahead to make sure we would have a full staff here," Klimowski said.

A number of major roads have been closed, including a 50-kilometer stretch of Interstate 17. The Arizona Transportation Department has no indication on when to the reopening of the road leading to Flagstaff from the south.

At the county level, the process of clearing roads has proven equally difficult.

"Our teams worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during this storm," said Matthew Rudig, Coconino County's Chief Information Officer. "We have 30 or 40 graders and plows at all times. Many of our teams work in teams of 12 hours. But many roads are still impassable or dangerous. "

The county has also opened an emergency operations center to help manage and provide logistical support to first responders. The Arizona Daily Sun announced that Flagstaff's Pulliam Airport had been closed due to a "total lack of visibility" on the runway.

The most intense snowstorm caused Flagstaff to rise above its average seasonal accumulation.

"It just puts us above normal for a season," Klimowski said. "We average about 100 inches. At this moment we are at 101. "

In an average year, an additional 32 inches fall after February 22nd. A scenario that would place 2018-2019 among the 10 snowiest winters in Flagstaff. The snowiest winter is 1895, with 207 inches.

The winter wonderland has not been relegated to Flagstaff. The snow fell in Tucson, where the average high in February is 69 degrees. The first measurable snow in the city in six years has been the wonder of cacti and palm trees covered with white dust.

And the flakes entered the Phoenix metropolitan area, where the snow level fell below 2,000 feet.

"Snow has actually arrived in our suburbs of Scottsdale and Fountain Hills," wrote Amber Sullins, Chief Meteorologist at ABC-15 in Phoenix. "It's after these places have received more than an inch of rain. It's a record rain for us!

Sullins expects the unusual cold to set a record temperature for February 22nd.

"We will only do in the low-50. The previous record was 54 between 1897 and 122 years! "It's not often that we beat cold records in this warming climate."

When the storm leaves Arizona, it will bring a dose of mountain snow to New Mexico before the warm-up takes place early next week.

As the cleanup continued following Thursday's event, Sullins summed up: "Both days were wet and wild!"

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