Flagstaff gets covered by a half-foot of snow
A strong Pacific storm dumped more than 61⁄2 inches of snow in the Flagstaff area overnight, forecasters said Friday morning.
“Looking very wintry out here after 6.5 inches of fresh snow and it’s still coming down,” the National Weather Service in Flagstaff tweeted at about 6 a.m.
At the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service tweeted at about 1:30 a.m. that several inches of wet snow had fallen.
Patchy fog also was reported Friday morning around the Valley.
Transportation officials reported fog and reduced visibility on Interstate 17 at Anthem and on U.S. 60 near Wickenburg.
High temperatures in the Valley will be in the 60s through the weekend, with lows in the 40s.
“A much cooler and unsettled pattern will prevail this weekend and early next week, with temperatures Sunday into Monday five to 10 degrees below seasonal normals,” the Weather Service said in a forecast Friday.
Another Pacific low pressure system may impact the Southwest by the end of next week.
In the Phoenix metro area, about a third of an inch of rain fell overnight at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
In other parts of Maricopa County, north Scottsdale got about a half inch of rain, while Deer Valley received about a third of an inch and Tempe received a quarter to a third of an inch, according to the Maricopa County Flood Control District.
About a third of an inch fell in Glendale and a quarter inch in west Phoenix. Buckeye reported a little more than a tenth of an inch, according to the flood control district.