Flagstaff, Arizona digs out from a 36-inch snowfall that shatters 126 year record - UPDATE

BrieAnna J Frank
AZCentral.com
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 05:00 UTC

© Lisa Abernethy

Lisa Abernethy posted this photo to Twitter saying "I don't think the stop sign will be visible much longer."

Flagstaff shattered the all-time daily snowfall record by 5 p.m., Thursday when the Flagstaff Airport registered 31.6 inches of snow, the National Weather Service said.

The previous record, 31 inches, was set on Dec. 30, 1915.

Total snowfall from the storm, which included Wednesday night, was 33.1 inches in Flagstaff as of the latest update provided Thursday from the National Weather Service.

Flagstaff declared a state of emergency Thursday, as schools remained closed and travel was discouraged.

The storm also brought heavy snow to other parts of northern Arizona, including Payson, which saw nearly two feet of snow as of 5:30 p.m., according to the NWS. It prompted officials to close several long stretches of highways throughout the state by Thursday evening.

Other cities receiving significant snowfall amounts of 20 inches or more were Prescott and Williams, while other cities in northern Arizona had seen at least a foot of snow.

Comment: Winter Storm Petra bears down on US East Coast with 200 million people in parts of 39 states in its path

Update: Albuquerque Journal reports:

"This was a very cold and highly unusual event for northern Arizona," said Brian Klimowski, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff. "We had record snowfall in several locations - certainly a historical event."

Historical indeed. Flagstaff, Arizona, officially picked up 35.9 inches, its highest single-day snow total in the 126 years that records have been kept. It shatters the previous one-day total of 31 inches, which had stood since 1915.