If some wild clouds in the skies above Green Valley caught your eye Monday evening, you’re not alone.
Dozens of photos submitted by Green Valley News readers show huge clouds forming near the base of the Santa Rita Mountains in an event that several residents termed a “snow bomb.”
But while impressive to take in, Ken Drozd, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tucson, shied away from using the word "bomb" to describe what happened.
“The term ‘bomb’ seems to be something that’s been mentioned a lot over the last few months to describe really a variety of phenomena, like ‘bomb’ cyclones, rain ‘bombs,’” Drozd said.
“It is a term that gets tossed around a lot and can mean a lot of different things, and one we don’t typically use it here,” he said.
Instead, what residents captured was likely akin to a snow squall, Drozd said, which are brief and intense periods of snowfall, often associated with strong cold fronts that can also bring gusty surface winds and whiteout conditions.
While the larger storm system that blanketed the Tucson area moved along during the day Monday, some lingering showers remained scattered throughout the area into the evening, creating distinct and isolated snow clouds that rolled through the valley floor.
“It’s similar to watching storms roll in during the monsoon, where you can distinctly see the clouds forming over the landscape, only with snow, it’s almost more visually striking because you can see it’s white all the way through the columns,” Drozd said.
“It’s something you might notice more often on the mountaintops, but it really is neat and impressive because we don’t get to see the snow fall all the way out to the valley floor all the time, as we did Monday – the cold air we had really allowed that snow to reach the valley,” he said.
After a rather cold start to Tuesday morning, temperatures are expected to moderate in the Tucson area with no precipitation expected for the rest of the week and daily highs beginning to climb back up to near normal into the weekend, according to the NWS.
Green Valley is forecasted to see lows between 28-36 degrees and highs between 58-64 through Monday.
According to the NWS, the next weather system to keep an eye on looks to develop early next week, and could potentially bring more precipitation to the area.
Mary Glen is a North Carolina native who's excited to explore the Tucson area through her reporting with Green Valley News. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media in 2019.
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