Winter storm rolls through northern Arizona leaving foot of snow in Flagstaff

PHOENIX – After a weak start, winter roared into Arizona high country Wednesday, dropping a lot of snow in the biggest storm of the season.

Flagstaff Airport received 12.3 inches, Williams 15.5 inches and Strawberry 12 inches but Forest Lakes was hit hardest. The city east of Payson had 19 inches of snow.

It was the most snow in a single day Flagstaff had seen since 14 inches fell Jan. 25, 2021.

You may be asking yourself, just how much snow fell across northern Arizona? Well, we have an answer for you! Here are some of the snow totals we received. There were so many reports & we can't thank you enough for sending them to us! More reports: https://t.co/5TzcdhHTmv #azwx pic.twitter.com/QotW1MqCiv

— NWS Flagstaff (@NWSFlagstaff) February 24, 2022

No more snow is expected this week, according to the National Weather Service.

“We’re looking at clear skies and dry conditions,” Darren McCollum, a weather service meteorologist in Flagstaff, told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Flagstaff officials said all nonessential services in the city would be operating on a two-hour delayed start Thursday morning due to inclement weather and poor road conditions, but all the roads closed because of the bad weather have reopened.

Coconino Community College and Northern Arizona University’s Flagstaff campus also will operate on a delayed start Thursday with classes before 10 a.m. cancelled.

Flagstaff Unified School District also delayed the start of Thursday classes by two hours. Schools in Williams and Blue Ridge were closed for the day.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officials said there were some slide offs on Interstate 40 involving tractor-trailers but no serious injury collisions reported.

The snowfall managed to make a dent in the city’s drought deficit.

“Right now Flagstaff Airport is sitting at 42.2 inches of snow for the season. Normal for this point of winter is 64.8 inches, so we’re still 20 inches below normal but we did make some headway,” McCollum said.

“We didn’t make it all the way back,” but added there is still time to catch up on snowfall, he added.

“Some of our biggest storms have occurred in March and early April. We’re not really out of it until we get to mid-April. It can snow here in May but the big ones are usually over by April.”

Flagstaff averages 90 inches of snow during the season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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