Record cold temperatures in the Phoenix area coupled with a strong and wet storm brought snow to the higher elevations of the surrounding Sonoran Desert. The moisture is a welcome feature of this year's El Niño weather pattern that frequently causes the wetter than normal winter that Arizona and the surrounding region has experienced.
Any snow pack that accumulate in the state's highest mountains eventually feed the rivers, reservoirs and aquifers that quench the population's insatiable thirst. But these high ranges are quite far from the bustling Phoenix metropolitan area, so it was a treat for highway commuters to see a white landscape closer to the urban sprawl's perimeter. However the freezing late February temperatures that guaranteed the snowy vistas is not what attracted most of us to this sunbelt city - it's heat we crave.
Nonetheless water in any form - even snow - gives life. And as these pictures from Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area north of greater Phoenix attest, the recent precipitation also gave a spectacular day of snowy scenery in the desert.
Any snow pack that accumulate in the state's highest mountains eventually feed the rivers, reservoirs and aquifers that quench the population's insatiable thirst. But these high ranges are quite far from the bustling Phoenix metropolitan area, so it was a treat for highway commuters to see a white landscape closer to the urban sprawl's perimeter. However the freezing late February temperatures that guaranteed the snowy vistas is not what attracted most of us to this sunbelt city - it's heat we crave.
Nonetheless water in any form - even snow - gives life. And as these pictures from Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area north of greater Phoenix attest, the recent precipitation also gave a spectacular day of snowy scenery in the desert.
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| View toward Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area while driving into the park from the community of Cave Creek. |
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| Elephant Mountain in snow. |
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| A flowing Cottonwood Creek before the park ranger placed a plank crossing. |
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| A flowing Cave Creek. |
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| A flowing Cave Creek with recently submerged and icy plank crossings. |
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