Winter Storm Drops Snowy Graupel on Metro Phoenix, Arizona Area

Loop 101 and Indian Bend Road in Scottsdale

Earlier today, my sister-in-law Effie posted on Facebook that snow was falling in her Scottsdale, Arizona neighborhood. She was quite surprised, as her area is not known for having this kind of precipitation, saying it dropped 6 degrees quickly and just started coming down. KTAR reports that a winter storm brought graupel (a “snow hail”) to the Valley. NOAA has a history of snowfall in Phoenix.

image by ADOT via KTAR

This is what you call a Phoenix Snowman. twitter.com/charshaff/stat…

— Charlotte Shaff (@charshaff) February 20, 2013

Live look in the AZ snow zone. –Chief Meteorologist Rob Guarino twitter.com/KVOAWeather/st…

— KVOA Weather (@KVOAWeather) February 20, 2013