We were at Santa Rita Abbey northwest of Sonoita on New Year's Eve and experienced a slight snowfall there. I see that NWS observations at the airport also indicated a bit of snow just before midnight. The rain and then snow at the Abbey was much lighter than over here in Tucson area. The grid-point forecast for out there, as per just before we left around 4 pm on Wednesday, was POPs 60% Wednesday and 70% Wednesday night, with snow accumulations of 1-3 inches possible. There was no precipitation out there on Wednesday - we were kicking up dust on Gardner Canyon and Fish Creek Roads. But light rain began a bit after 6 pm MST and then quickly turned to light snow. There was about a quarter inch of high water-content snow on the grass at sunrise - very crispy and crunchy to the step.
On return to house I was surprised to find 0.51" of rain in the gauge - have no idea if there was a bit of snow mixed in here. This final weather event of 2014 brings December rainfall here to 2.41 inches, which is a tie for second wettest December since my measurements began back in 1999.
Below are several photos from morning of first day of 2015.
Mount Wrightson and the Santa Ritas looking west-southwest from Santa Rita Abbey.
Photo by Art Rangno looking east from near Catalina up to Mt. Lemmon.
Photo by Bill Cotton taken east of Catalina of snow-blasted saguaros.
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