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Snow falls on desert cities in Southwest

By Associated Press
Published: January 2, 2019, 10:26pm
2 Photos
Snow partially covers a cactus Wednesday near Vail, Ariz.
Snow partially covers a cactus Wednesday near Vail, Ariz. jessica howard Photo Gallery

PHOENIX (AP) — The weather was flipped Wednesday throughout much of the West, with snow falling on cactuses in the Arizona desert and Anchorage seeing balmy weather — at least by Alaska standards.

In Phoenix, the overnight low was 30 degrees for the first time in five years and more cold temperatures were expected Thursday. The Tucson area saw as much as 6 inches of snow.

“It was pretty magical,” said Jessica Howard, a resident of the Tucson suburb of Vail who took her 8- and 5-year-old children to play in the snow. “My social media feeds are like 100 percent snow pictures right now.”

Snow dusted cactuses and mountains in southern Arizona and covered the Grand Canyon in the north.

Elsewhere, the National Weather Service issued a freeze warning in the Nevada county where Las Vegas is located. Snow fell and stuck Tuesday on a desert highway over a mountain 20 minutes outside Sin City.

Albuquerque, N.M., saw heavy snowfall and icy roads that caused many government agencies and schools to close.

The cold weather and snow is “quite uncommon” for the area, said Glenn Lader, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Tucson. Nogales, an Arizona city on the Mexico border, had about 6 inches of snow, he said.

Even Southern California got a bit of the action, with rain expected as part of already cold, windy weather.

Meanwhile, parts of Alaska rang in the new year with relatively balmy weather for the region that helped melt snow in Anchorage.

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