- PHOENIX (AP) _ There's been record cold and even snow in the desert Southwest,
while much of the rest of the nation has had a snow drought and record
warmth. Phoenix got its first snowfall in four years Sunday. ``The snowflakes
are the size of quarters,'' said Sandra Steele as she watched the snow
fall outside her home in suburban Scottsdale. ``It's just beautiful.''
``It looks kind of strange because you're not used to seeing snowflakes
out of your window no matter how cold it gets,'' said Gerri Cosney in suburban
Cave Creek. An inch of snow fell Sunday morning at Las Vegas, Nev., momentarily
distracting gamblers. Enough fell for children and even a group of firefighters
to make snowmen.
And today in Los Angeles, the mountains framing the city had a coating
of snow that reached elevations as low as 3,000 feet. The snow fell during
the night after a day of stormy weather in which high wind knocked out
power to some 40,000 customers in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Las
Vegas' McCarran International Airport was closed for 20 minutes because
of blowing snow Sunday, but only one flight was affected, said spokeswoman
Cynthia Anderson.
The last measurable snowfall in Las Vegas was three-quarters of an inch
on Feb. 26, 1996. The snow in Phoenix quickly changed to rain, but Sunday's
high temperature was only 48, a record for the date in the palm tree-studded
desert city and 19 degrees below normal. The National Weather Service said
the last snow recorded in the Phoenix area was a trace on Feb. 4, 1994,
and the last measurable snow was Dec. 21-22, 1990, when 0.4 of an inch
fell. At the higher elevations of northern Arizona, up to 5 inches of snow
fell near Flagstaff, Kingman and Prescott. A 30-mile stretch of steep Interstate
17 between Flagstaff and the Sedona turnoff had to be closed for about
four hours Sunday. The state Department of Public Safety said dozens of
cars slid off the road but there were no serious accidents. Farther north,
in the Sierra Nevada along the California-Nevada state line, ski resorts
around Lake Tahoe got up to 1{ feet of snow during the weekend, for a total
of more than 5 feet over the past week. The Alpine Meadows resort already
has 100 inches, a total usually not reached until sometime in January,
spokeswoman Rachael Woods said. That's in stark contrast with the eastern
half of the nation, where most ski resorts haven't even had enough low
temperatures for machine-made snow. Today, Buffalo, N.Y., which has a reputation
for cold and deep snow, had a record temperature of 69 -- before the sun
even came up. And the temperature warmed to 73 degrees this morning at
Concord, N.H., a record for that New England city for the entire month
of December. Concord has had only 0.6 of an inch of snow. Burlington, Vt.,
reached 64 before dawn, three degrees above the old record for the date.
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