By Lisa Docena
EBC Arizona Bureau
(Eagle News) — In Flagstaff, Arizona, locals take pride in year-round mild weather. While most are accustomed to occasional snow storms, locals are not accustomed to the snow falls they’ve been receiving recently, which some have been referring to as the “Snowmaggedon.”
Record-breaking levels of snow have blanketed most of northern Arizona from early Thursday morning into Saturday morning for parts of the state, including the greater Phoenix area of Scottsdale.
By 11:20 am, Thursday, February 21, the National Weather Service reported that Flagstaff Airport had recorded 22.3 inches of snow, smashing the daily record of 10 inches set in 1944. By Saturday morning, the total had reached 40 inches.
Arizona Department of Transportation’s Doug Nintzel tweeted advisories and updates to help travelers understand the dangers of traveling through such conditions.
“The roads are very slippery. I had a chance to be out driving in a four-wheel drive vehicle but it was still slick out. So that’s why we’re recommending that drivers try to avoid traveling while the storm is moving across the state,” tweeted Nintzel.
The storm led to closures of schools, government offices and businesses throughout Northern Arizona with many residents unable to leave their homes.
By noon Thursday, the Department of Public Safety had already responded to 152 calls of slide-offs and trapped vehicles with another 28 calls for injury and non-injury crashes.
Colonel Frank Milstead, Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and a veteran law enforcement officer, tweeted photos and video of the effects of the snowstorm along with a warning for travelers to cancel trips to Flagstaff until the storm has passed.
As feared, many highways were closed due to traffic accidents and unsafe driving conditions. Interstate 40, a major east-west interstate highway which connects California on the U.S. West Coast to North Carolina on the East Coast was hit hard with snow along passes through Arizona and New Mexico. Multiple closures in both directions along the I-40 left truckers and travelers stranded as they waited for the highways to be cleared.
Although the storm is projected to clear the area over the weekend the threat of dangerous traveling conditions remain.
The Department of Transportation has already started advising travelers to drive slower than usual, to be aware of the presence of black ice on the highways, and to avoid stopping or parking along the side of highway no matter how picturesque the view might be as such stops could lead to emergency situations.
(Eagle News Service)
