SADDLEBROOK SNOW “PERFECT STORM”, WINTER-WONDERLAND MORNING, GONE BY MID-DAY…
THIS SADDLEBROOKE GARGOYLE SHOWS LITTLE ENTHUSIASM FOR THIS CHANGE IN THE WEATHER-NO REAL FAN OF SNOW…
While the Northeast United States is digging out of three feet of new snow and a blizzard of historic proportions — across the great divide on the opposite side of the U.S. Tucsonans awoke to a frosty white deposit on all the mountains surrounding this desert community. The Catalina Range above 9,000 feet took the biggest hit with a fancy white shawl laced down to her foothills. More surprisingly, was the dusting left on the Tortolita’s, the Tucson’s, the Santa Rita’s and the Rincon Mountains all had deep deposits on their higher peaks. Much like the song about Camelot, the rain fell during the night and was gone by daybreak, snow on all peaks is a unique event particularly when the overall temperatures were already in the fifties. Clouds kept sunshine from attacking the snow until around noon when it popped out and the snow began retreating but not before the breaking up clouds allowed the sun to spotlight the peaks setting off their snowy lids against dark backgrounds. Saddlebrooke, Arizona recently was selected as one of the best retirement communities in the United States, particularly due to its setting at the base of the Santa Catalina Range not far from the University of Arizona’s BioSphere, City of Tomorrow. The snow was a big draw and brought lots of walkers out to stride around and check out what snow does when it falls on the desert. It is very textured experience and folks can be very impressed, most remembered winters back east like today which has seized the entire eastern seaboard, shutting down businesses, keeping folks at home, stopping the trains, buses and more than 5,000 air flights. Today the east coast is paralyzed, highways shut down, folks are stranded, some without phone and power lines are down and people are again without heat and lighting–today in Tucson the sun showed itself around noon, warmed up the land and melted away all the snow. There was nothing worse back in the mid-west, three months into a long winter with the black dirty snow stacked against curb and at times in the middle of the streets and knowing you would be climbing over that ugly snow for weeks, except when it would melt quick and refreeze as a invisible glaze–that’s when things really got fun. Southern Arizona was magnificent this morning, the air was so clear you could see forever and by afternoon, it was just beautiful.
SOUTHWESTPHOTOBANK PHOTO GALLERIES: FOR MORE SNOW PICTURES…CLICK HERE
U.S. and CANADA DIG OUT OF HISTORIC SNOWSTORM, 370 THOUSAND WITHOUT POWER, 15 DEAD… CLICK HERE
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